


Uninvited

by twicejinxed



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon), 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series
Genre: Alcohol, Blood Drinking, Explicit Language, Hand Jobs, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 16:00:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16222463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twicejinxed/pseuds/twicejinxed
Summary: Who is the hunter? Who is the hunted?Alucard knew the truth. They were both easy prey.





	1. Hiss

I. Belmont

Red. Everywhere. 

It was all Trevor could see, feel, smell. Red on the horizon as they half-walked, half-climbed up the treacherous mountain road. Red when he’d walked through the streets of Wallachia’s ravaged cities, over the corpses of merchants and mothers ripped open like abused toys. Red when he closed his eyes--not in hope of sleep, but in the wish to imagine himself elsewhere. Someplace with endless kegs of booze, beautiful people, and not a single vampire in sight. 

And a velvet fucking throne, he thought, stopping to stretch his calves. They’d spent hours walking uphill, scaling paths not even horses could manage. In fact, they’d traded their horses for gold at a stable before embarking on this suicidal journey. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t complain out loud. It had, after all, been his idea to take the shortcut up the mountain. Alucard insisted some bloody relic lived on top of the hazardous peak, because of course it did. He’d rather spend a day or two busting his ass on these cliffs than a week or more with a fucking vampire prince.

He’d tried pretending, for the sake of their alliance, that the thing Sypha and the Speakers entrusted with their lives wasn’t what he truly was, but he reeked of it. He could smell it from the moment he’d entered his damned lair. 

Trevor grit his teeth as he followed closely behind a head of long, white-blonde hair, trailing his eyes over the man’s coat for traces of his last meal. Alucard told Sypha and Trevor that he’d had his fill from the bottles left in his wine cellar, but Trevor had his doubts. He still bristled at how naive Sypha was to trust this creature so quickly, half-human or not. Even now, she walked beside him as if he were a normal man and not a beast who’d surely rip out her throat if he lost control of his senses. 

Moments from their first meeting flashed through his mind. The creature’s mouth hovering over his throat. How quickly his flesh healed from Trevor’s blade. Exhausted as he was, the need to fight again stirred like hunger in his stomach. Yes, that was it. The reason he couldn’t stop replaying the memory in his mind. He wanted a second chance. He wanted to learn Alucard’s weaknesses, just in case.

His stomach growled. Maybe he was actually hungry…

“Are you well, Belmont?” Sypha turned, her voice breathy from the ascent. “You haven’t spoken since we left. Not even to complain.” 

Trevor scoffed. “Sorry if I haven’t been the best entertainer. I suppose I get a bit boring when I haven’t had meat or a pint in several hours.”

And he hadn’t, actually, which was a bit of a revelation. He supposed he’d been so focused on watching Alucard and getting to where ever the hell he was going, it hadn’t occurred to him to drink until now.

Sypha rolled her eyes. “You know, we brought plenty of provisions. You need not starve yourself.”

“Yes, dried meat and water,” He grumbled, nearly under his breath. “You Speakers sure know how to satisfy a craving.”

“You will start drinking more water than ale if you want the slightest chance of defeating Dracula,” she snapped.

Alucard slowed to a halt as they reached a break in the vertical path, and he turned to face his bickering companions. Trevor caught a glimpse of his golden eyes before shifting his gaze toward the valley ahead. In the distance, he spotted a smattering of firelight up ahead. A small village, or at least a large farm, from the looks of it. Somewhere still untouched by Alucard’s father’s genocide.

He tried to not think about the stupid vampire’s stupid eyes or his stupid fangs or the strange aura that seemed to pulse from his form when he stood this close. God, he needed a drink.

“I think it would be best if we stopped for the night,” Alucard spoke. “This journey is long, and we must care for ourselves. I must admit, I’m still fatigued from my awakening.”

Trevor looked at him curiously. “‘Still fatigued’? Didn’t you get a whole year of sleep? Or are you in need of something else?” His right hand grazed the whip beneath his coat. “If you think I’ll concede to stopping by a tavern for a drink just so you can have one too, you’re far stupider than you look.” 

In his periphery, Trevor could see Sypha applying a hand to her forehead as if to say ‘not again.’ 

Alucard’s response was not what Trevor expected. The vampire seemed to grow taller as he approached Trevor, noticeably a few inches above the Belmont’s head. His eyes flashed deep amber with a tinge of crimson. “Does it frighten you, Belmont, that I require blood?” 

“Frighten me?” Trevor drew himself up taller, still unable to make up for the difference in height. “No, it disgusts me.” 

“How interesting,” Alucard almost smiled. “I find your insatiable thirst for ale quite disgusting as well.”

Trevor bared his teeth in a wolfish grin. “You can’t compare blood and ale. Though I might bleed both.”

“I'm sure." He bore straight into the hunter’s eyes, and Trevor met his gaze with equal fervor. It felt for a moment as if his mind were being probed, but the intruder struggled to pick the lock. Can’t come in unless you’re invited, he thought. No bloodsucker could toy with his mind that easily.

The dhampire sighed. “No, Belmont, I do not intend to murder innocents on our quest to save Wallachia. I have ethical ways of acquiring blood, as I have told you.”

Oh yes, as he’d told Sypha and Trevor, he could subsist off animal’s blood for short periods of time, but for much longer off the blood of “willing” humans. Trevor had a problem with that second part. 

“Are you going to argue all night, Trevor?” Sypha brushed past the two men, the last rays of dusk casting her tired but lovely face in its weak light. “I think Alucard is right. We should find shelter in the village.”

“Oh, so you’ve decided, then? This is follow-the-leader now?” Trevor moved to follow, stopping when he remembered the thing with fangs behind him. Don’t let him get behind you, fool.

“If you’re just going to stand there and bicker like an old couple, then yes, I am the leader.”

The vampire hunter’s face seared red. “Fucking Speakers… always have to have it your way. They’d better have mead in this godforsaken village,” he growled. “Well, batty, are you coming? This was your idea.”

He’d turned around to ask, but no one was there. Fuck.

“I wonder if I will like you more when you are intoxicated." The words came from a voice like a blade, accompanied by the blow of ice-cold breath. 

Trevor fought the urge to jump. Fucking party tricks. God, he hated vampires. 

“I’ll be honest with you, mate,” he said, shaking off the strange static sensation Alucard’s presence emitted. “I’m not very likable, sober or drunk.”

II. Tepes

The village was indeed untouched, although news had spread of the plague that had befallen Gresit. Reports were muddled and contradictory, as was the usual case for gossip. 

Most of the shopkeepers thought themselves immune to whatever misfortune had torn apart the larger city. 

“One good thing about livin’ on top of a godforsaken mountain,” the first merchant they spoke to, from whom a ravenous Trevor purchased a leg of smoked meat, boasted. “Too much trouble for trouble to come all the way up here. Fact, you’re the first visitors we’ve had in… Christ, wish I could remember how long.” 

Sypha asked for directions to the nearest inn. 

“You mean the only inn, miss,” the merchant corrected. “It’s just ahead. Can’t miss it. Only one street in town!”

The roads were mostly deserted. Băidin was a small shepherding town, and shepherds tucked in early.

Alucard had visited once, out of pure curiosity. He was happy to see his glamour held true. None recognized him as they strolled toward the inn. He found there were gentle people who welcomed the sight of an outsider, and those who tried to keep their village pure and unsullied by “foreign” hands. 

The inn certainly belonged to one of the former. The innkeeper, a large, apple-faced woman with calloused hands, offered them stew as soon as they walked through the door.  
“Such beautiful faces!” She cooed. “God himself has sent you to bless us against the evils.”

Alucard sat with the bowl warming his lap while Trevor and Sypha dug hungrily into the mountain stew. 

“Thank you, madame,” Sypha spoke, her eyes closed as she savored the last bite. “Your people are too kind.”

“I pray your village remains out of harm’s way,” Alucard added.

Trevor covered his sudden burst of laughter with an exaggerated cough.

“Just make sure you eat up and get plenty of rest. You’ve the best rooms in the inn. If there’s anything you need, just ring the bell and one of us’ll come running,” the innkeeper said, gesturing toward her skinny husband, who ran back and forth to refill Trevor and Sypha’s bowls.

Trevor sat up and stretched, hands on his stomach like a satisfied bear. “Thank you for your generosity. It’s truly appreciated. Now if I could just ask for one more favor… the closest open tavern?”

“You mean the only tavern,” she grinned. They certainly enjoyed that joke. “The Dusty Flame is right down the road. We used serve spirits here, but Mihail here got too achy in the joints to keep up all night. En’t that right, dragule?”

The slender, weathered man smiled toward his solidly-built wife. The lady innkeeper bid farewell, letting the three travelers know they could knock on their door should any issues arise before leaving them alone by the crackling fireplace. The man’s silence reminded Alucard of moments when his mother would speak quickly and passionately while his father would nod, watching her lovingly, not wanting to spoil the moment with his own voice. Alucard swallowed the memory and turned to view his companions. Sypha’s forehead rested in her hand, and she snored lightly, nestled in the arm chair.

“I think it may be time for some of us to depart for bed,” Alucard said. 

Trevor turned to look at Sypha’s sleeping form. “Oh yeah, she’s a goner. Should we wake her up or… ?”

Alucard pondered how entertaining and even sweet it would be for Trevor to carry the sleeping girl to bed. He’d let him agonize over the options first.

“Well?” Trevor sighed. “I guess I’ll… try…” 

He set his bowl on the side table and moved toward her sleeping frame. As he knelt to get closer, Alucard swore he saw his cheeks turn a lovely shade of red. A muscled arm nestled beneath her head, hesitating by her legs.

A sleep-heavy voice broke the awkward silence “I swear on the stars and the moon, if you try to carry me like a baby, I’ll break the parts of you that could make one.”

“Christ!” Trevor dropped the blonde witch as if she were fire. “You’re a bloody demon.”

Sypha cackled, sliding from the chair like a graceful seal. “There are those who would agree with you. I will see you in the morning, Trevor, Alucard.” She nodded toward each, pausing in front of Alucard. “Thank you, again, for leading us toward resurrection. I know we will prevail with your aid.” 

Trevor scoffed, but Sypha remained resolute. What an interesting pair he’d acquired, Alucard thought. One who seemed to believe he could walk on water, and one who prostrated his disaffection whenever possible. He stood and bowed in thanks to Sypha as she left for her rented chambers.

“Well,” Trevor stretched, not unlike a hunting dog on a bearskin rug after a long day’s work, “I think I’m long overdue for a fucking drink. What say you, vampire? Craving a pint of the good red stuff?” His twitching hands rested where he knew his whip lay. 

Alucard moved toward the fireplace. “I only require a small amount to regain my strength for now,” he said, brushing past Trevor’s obvious sarcasm. “I have brought plenty to satisfy my thirst. Thank you for asking.”

“Doubt you brought enough to last the whole journey. And what the Hell will you do once you’re out of your oh-so-moral supply of blood?”

“Animal blood will suffice for short periods of time,” Alucard replied curtly. 

He knew the tempestuous boy wanted Alucard to respond with teeth and violence, but he wouldn’t give it to him. Trevor bent forward, resting his arms on his knees. 

“Show me,” he said. 

“Surely you’ve hunted animals before, Belmont,” Alucard crossed his arms and leaned against the mantle. 

“Sod off,” Trevor growled. “I want to see how you do it. Make sure you’re not actually hunting humans out there, you know.”

Alucard couldn’t help but laugh. “Believe me, Belmont, I do not hunt humans. Your breed is not hard to catch.” 

He crossed the living room and headed for his own chambers, relishing in the Belmont’s flummoxed look as he passed. How his cheeks reddened so easily. 

“Fine, fine,” Trevor spat as he passed. “Forget a pint, I need a whole fucking keg. You will tell me how you feed, Alucard, or you’ll sleep with my whip around your throat.” 

Oh, I won’t be sleeping at all, Alucard thought. But he thought he’d have plenty of time to tell the vampire hunter all about that later. 

Later, when he brought the vial of liquid to his lips (taken from a willing farm boy, nineteen years of age), Alucard pictured a capricious vampire hunter keening beneath him. How his blood must taste of spirits and fire. How Sypha might taste like power and ripe fruit. These and other thoughts he would never let slip from his lips. The desires he would never let shred what small bits of humanity his mother had bestowed. He cursed his own mind as he drained the vial, unsatisfied when he’d finished. Gods, the Belmont was right. The hint of a meal only left him hungrier.

This would be a long journey.


	2. Spun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trevor has a few too many, our noble dhampire takes him home.

Alucard could not sleep. Not because the moon hung in the sky rather than the sun--his human side permitted him to be diurnal, as well as protecting him from the sun’s rays. But it was difficult to sleep unless his thirst was adequately quenched, and chances were that wouldn’t happen until after their divine quest. 

He stood from his useless bed and glanced out the one window in his tiny chambers. The village was dark, save for one squat building glowing with torchlight, from which he could hear the muffled bellows and guffaws of unmistakably drunken men. Trevor’s voice, lithe and ever-so-slightly aristocratic in comparison to the others no matter how hard he tried to destroy himself with ale, rose above the rest for a brief moment. 

“Fuckin’ try, pissant,” he slurred. 

Alucard focused on the slight slant of light from an open window and saw the brazen vampire hunter slumped over a miserable bar, alcohol glazing his eyes. 

So this was the state of the Belmont legacy. A stubborn young man trying his best to drink away the demons rather than fight them. Still, Alucard had noted the power that flickered across his face like candlelight, the untamed ferocity with which they’d fought only days before in his chambers. Trevor had tried to rough himself up around the edges, but it was like muddying a diamond. No matter how dirty it became, it could still shine. 

Trevor needed a good cleaning in more ways than one.

A cacophony of shattered glass echoed from down the street, followed by loud jeers and outright shouting. One voice stood out above the rest.

Alucard turned to fetch his coat and his sword, just in case he happened to encounter something more dangerous than a drunken fool. 

\------

“I coulda handled myself,” the hunter slurred, stumbling down the street ahead of Alucard and clutching his arm. “Didn’t need you stoppin’ me…”

“I beg to differ,” the dhampire replied, watching with a mix of amusement and disappointment as his companion, the man with whom he would fight Dracula, staggered toward the inn with all the composure of the town drunkard.

When he’d approached the scene at the tavern, there was little Alucard could do but watch as the monster slayer took more beatings than he gave from the three much larger men he’d no doubt mouthed off to after a few pints. If he could have, he would have ended the idiocy much sooner. He couldn’t enter without an invitation from the bar keeper, who at the time was one of the three men engaged in kicking Trevor’s pompous ass. 

Instead, he swooped in to prevent him from re-entering the fight after the largest man, a burly, pock-faced brute, had thrown him out the door, shouting “And stay the fuck out, pretty boy!” 

Trevor was still surprisingly strong, but the spirits made him topsy-turvy. He’d flailed uselessly against Alucard’s grasp as he’d pulled him down the street and away. Soon, the pulling turned into supporting Trevor’s unstable frame--up until Trevor realized what was happening and pushed himself away to stumble madly through down the empty road, as he did now, cursing when he walked into a merchant’s cart.

“Bloody fuckin’ hell,” he spat, kicking the empty cart. 

“I think you’ve made enough of a scene for one night,” Alucard pulled the man back by his coat collar before he could land another blow. “Let’s not add destroyed property to the list of infractions.”

Trevor peered behind, his hair standing on end like an angry cat. “Why the hell are you here?”

“The world needs you, Trevor Belmont,” he said, marching forward with Trevor’s coat still in his grip. “And, like it or not, we are partners now. I cannot have my compatriot burning bridges in every town we pass through.”

“No--” Trevor hiccupped. “I mean, why are you here? On a quest to, to kill… your fucking father.”  
He laughed and shook his head, his movements exaggerated and off-kilter. “I mean, I’m no novice when it comes to daddy issues, but just seems a bit… odd. Ugh, gotta piss.”

Alucard resisted the urge to whip him back around and shake the doubt from his bones. How many times did he have to retell the story of his mother, his father? When would Trevor finally trust him? Now was not the time. “You know why I’m here, Trevor Belmont.” 

“Yeah, yeah, prose-prophesy and all that. Really gotta piss, though. Don’t think you want that on you.”

“Oh,” the dhampire dropped his hold, quick as if Trevor had suddenly transformed into a rat. “We are close to the inn, if you can wait.” 

“Nope.” Trevor was already undoing his belt and walking toward a corner near an alley. Alucard pretended to be enthralled with the disheveled building to their right.

“I wanna know something, something else,” Trevor spoke over his pissing, as if things weren’t crude enough already.

“Yes?” Alucard stood with his hands behind his back, listening closely in the night. Fortunately, he hadn’t yet felt the presence of demons. 

“How the hell,” the sound of a belt being buckled, “do you eat? Since… you know... you’re such a moral monster.”  
He could feel the drunk man’s warm breath on his back. “I’ve told you,” he turned. “Animal blood when I must. Human blood when it is available. It is always a consensual agreement.”

“Yeah, I just don’t get… fuck…” Trevor stumbled and grabbed the other man’s coat to stabilize, “don’t get how anyone could be stu-stupid enough to let a, a bloody monster bite their fucking neck. Then again,” he mumbled as Alucard walked forward, pushing him along, “there’s a lotta stupid people in this world, eh? Sure you’re grace-grateful for that.”

Alucard could see the lights of the inn ahead of them, just as Trevor tripped on the air and nearly fell face first. “We are almost there,” he said, swinging Trevor’s arm over his shoulder before he could protest. “I will tell you my secrets, Belmont, once we return to the inn.” 

“S’long as you don’t DRINK my fuckin’ BLOOD before we get there,” he nearly shouted. Alucard again resisted the urge to slap his hand over his unruly mouth.

They managed, somehow, to make it back to the inn. The trip up the narrow stairs took some effort and would have been much easier if Alucard hadn’t had to constantly remind Trevor to keep his voice down. He hesitated at before the door, unsure of how to proceed.

“Open the fuckin’ door,” Trevor slurred. 

Alucard gripped the doorknob. “Can I come in?” 

The man still draped across his shoulders began to laugh. “Oh, shit, forgot about that little bit, eh?” He paused for a moment, seemingly weighing his options. “Yeah, you can come in. On-only because I wanna talk, you know. 

“Thank you.” Alucard opened the door, left Trevor slightly wobbling as he shut the door behind them.

“Well,” Trevor said. “I’m ready.” 

An odd statement considering the circumstances. He observed the man’s flushed face, the bags beneath his blue eyes, his face remarkably unscathed after the bar scuffle. Here, in close quarters, he could truly hear the blood pumping through his veins, probably tasting of honey mead and whatever formidable substance ran through the Belmont bloodline. 

“Ready for what?” Alucard asked, though of course, he remembered the question. “Do you need help with your coat?” 

“No, I…” Trevor wrestled with his sleeves. “Bloody hell, get this thing off me.” 

The dhampire slid the thick coat off his shoulders, relishing the brief moment his hands came in contact with Trevor’s shirt, under which his blood pulsed. Beneath the thin cotton, he could see a topography of muscle and bone, even a collarbone peaking out. A brief flash--his mouth on the man’s throat, fingers wrapped in his mahogany hair, his teeth and tongue tracing his bones, lingering on his neck--pulled back into the present moment. Just in time to see the hunter reach for his whip. 

“I won’t answer any question while that is in your hands,” Alucard said, his right hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Then stop staring at me like I’m a piece of meat,” Trevor said, sounding surprisingly sober.

Alucard dropped his hand. “I am sorry. Truly. I have not been amongst humans in so long. It was not intentional.”

Again to his surprise, rather than fighting him, Trevor plopped on the tiny, straw-stuffed mattress and rested his head against the wall, letting the vampire-killer rest by his side. “Oh, I’m not worried about myself. You try anything, I rip out your heart. Easy.”

“Like you did when we first sparred?” Alucard folded his arms and leaned against the opposite wall, feeling the low ceiling brush against his scalp. 

“Wasn’t a real fight. I let you off easy. Now, about this bloodsucking thing…”

“Yes, I believe I’ve answered you several times now.”

“Still haven’t explained what the hell a willing victim means.” Trevor leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees and glaring at the tall blonde towering above him. 

Alucard returned his gaze. How did they always end up in a staring contest? “I offer payment. Money, food, medicine. Sometimes, they come to me without asking for anything in return. There have even been those who offered payment to me instead, but I always refused.”

“Payment to you?” Trevor scoffed. “Someone would pay to have their blood sucked out? What, on a suicide mission?” 

Alucard, finally feeling something akin to exhaustion, sat down in a dinky wooden chair. “It can be… pleasurable. Extremely so, for some people.” 

The other man burst into laughter. “You mean, you mean, there are bloodsucker sluts?” He wiped a tear from his eye. “A legion of whores begging for your fangs? Christ, this world has gone to shit, hasn’t it?”

The dhampire sat up straight. “This is not uncommon, Belmont. I am surprised your family did not pass this knowledge down to you.” He cocked his head. “Perhaps they thought you too immature at the time.”

“Heh,” Trevor nodded. “I probably was… So who are your victims? Men or women?”

“I accept anyone who is willing and healthy in mind and body.”

“Do you fuck them?” 

“Who?” Alucard suddenly wondered if he’d lingered too long in Trevor’s room.

“Your willing victims,” he imitated Alucard’s stoic tone.

“Why do you care?” The dhampire remained impassive. 

“Fine, fine… you just bite them, give them blue balls, and send them home. Sounds fantastic.” 

Alucard examined his nails. “I don’t always bite. I can drink blood from a cut or even a pinprick. My mother designed an invention that could pull blood from the skin without even a wound… She called it an intravenous needle. It could have saved thousands of lives, but her prosecutors destroyed them after they denounced her as a witch.” 

Silence hung in the room like fog. It lingered for at least 30 seconds before Trevor’s voice pierced through.

“A needle? Like a sewing needle?” 

“Almost. It is sharp, like a sewing needle, but with a container on one end. The needle is hollow so it can draw blood. It can also be used to inject substances like medicine. The process is so quick, the patient cannot feel anything. I’ve heard the sensation described as a gentle tug and nothing more.”

Alucard stopped when he realized he hadn’t heard Trevor interject. The hunter sat crouched, head bowed, breathing heavily in sleep. 

The dhampire rose, careful to not hit his head on the exposed wooden beams above. The position in which Trevor slept looked horribly uncomfortable. He hesitated before bending down to lay the man’s head on his pillow, coaxing him to move his legs. 

“Dare you to…” Trevor spoke, once again piercing the silence in a voice thick with sleep.

“To what?” Alucard paused in the doorway. The hunter looked so fragile in this state, cradled into his side like a small child, eyelashes spilling across his cheeks. 

“Take from me. Better me than… someone else.” 

It was easy to admire Trevor in this state. Vulnerable, exposed. He could have bitten him now, could have felt him turn pliant in his grip. 

“Go to sleep, Trevor Belmont.”

Alucard returned to his room and did did not sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from "Spun" by Chelsea Wolfe


	3. Psyche

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait... Also I haven't watched the new season because I'm waiting to binge it.

_Belmont_

A knocking at the door reverberated in Trevor’s skull. He tried to open his eyes. Daylight pierced through the window like needles through his skin. 

“Trevor!” A feminine voice followed another set of urgent knocking. “We must go, now!”

He rose with a groan, propping himself on one arm and raking his fingers through his matted brown hair. Christ, he needed to bathe. And sleep more. When had he gotten back to the inn? He could barely remember…

 _Knock knock knock._ “If you do not open this door now, I will open it myself!”

“Ugh…” He pulled himself up and rolled his shoulders, stopping at a particularly sore spot. Oh yes, he remembered that little bar scuffle now. “One second…” 

Sypha’s knocking picked up pace. 

“Alright, alright.” 

Standing drew a wince from the slightly-battered man, who’d gained a few scrapes and bruises from his nocturnal rendezvous. Not as bad as he’d expected, though. Just the usual: splitting headache, a couple of sores, a few gaps in his memory. 

He took a deep breath, bracing himself for Sypha’s rage as he turned the flimsy door knob, just in time for Sypha to shove the door in with her shoulder. Old, Splintered wood met with Trevor’s aching head. 

“I’m sorry!” Sypha covered her hands with her mouth. “I didn’t mean to…”

He grasped his head, eyes closed. Symbols crashed in his head and rainbows danced beneath his eyelids. 

“‘S… fine.” Did it make a difference at this point? Trevor’s day was fucked the moment he woke up. 

“Do you need… can I…” Sypha stuttered, actually seeming concerned for the hunter (for once).

Trevor noticed something odd. Sypha was still in her nightgown--a blue, shapeless sack that unfortunately hid whatever shape lay beneath. If she was in such a hurry to wake him and go, then why wasn’t she fully dressed?

“We have to go soon,” she said, as if reading his mind, “but the owners of the inn have drawn us baths before we leave. It was very kind of them.”

He tried raising his eyebrows and immediately regretted it, wincing again from the stabbing pain. “You mean you could have let me sleep another hour?” 

Sypha rolled her eyes, no longer feeling apologetic. She sniffed the air and grimaced. “You reek of spirits, Belmont! If anyone needs soap and water, it’s you.”

Trevor watched her walking down the hall, catching what he thought was a sliver of curvature beneath her frumpy gown. “I’ll be bathing first,” she said, “then Alucard, then you. If you are not clean when we must leave in one hour, I will drench you in water myself” she turned, “and it will not be pleasant.”

The dhampire’s name jolted the hunter’s senses. A flash of memory--a tall body with a head of long, blonde hair tugging him down the street, sitting in a small room with wooden walls. He glanced around the bedroom. Surely he didn’t… he wouldn’t.

His brain seemed to bounce about in his skull. He was confusing dreams--nightmares--with reality. Maybe a bucket of cold water was what he needed. 

After, of course, the creature had his turn. And how was he supposed to know when Alucard was finished? 

Sypha was already long gone. He leaned against the wall, eyes closed, seeing lights dance beneath his eyelids. This would be a long day.

Water, water was a good idea. Not as good as beer, but it would do. He turned toward the pitcher sitting on the small side table, stopping when he noticed that the one scrawny chair had moved from its place in the corner to much closer to the bed. Strange, but one does strange things after losing track of how many pints they’ve downed.

The pitcher, sadly, held nothing but dust. He sighed. Might as well venture downstairs. Maybe he could get something greasy and fattening for breakfast from the hefty innkeeper. But first, a quick nap. 

\--

Trevor awoke from his brief (oh so brief) cat nap and reached to splash water on his face. Finding none there, he remembered his task. Go downstairs. Find food. And something else?

Downstairs, Sypha hovered over a cup of something light brown and steaming, her unkempt but recently washed golden hair strewn across the well-worn table, catching the light cast through the grimy windowpane. 

“What’re you looking at?” Trevor asked, standing beside her as he eyed the corridor. 

“Sometimes the tea itself has as much to say as the leaves,” she spoke before taking a sip. 

Sure, Trevor thought. I love deciphering cryptic messages first thing in the morning.

“Alucard should be done soon,” she continued. “We must leave, quickly. After you’ve bathed. Something lies up ahead. Something big.”

“Ah, I really smell that terrible, eh?” Trevor leaned against a wooden beam. “You’d risk our lives just to force me to bathe?” 

Sylpha turned to look behind her. “Absolutely,” she said, without hesitation.

A voice like a velvet blade pierced the room: “You sense danger approaching, Sylpha?” It seemed to come from every corner of the room. 

Alucard appeared before them, seemingly by teleportation. Trevor nearly jolted. The damphire stood by the window, unbothered by the golden sunlight which lit his damp blonde hair ablaze. 

“Could you at least try behaving a bit more like a human?” Trevor stuttored. “We have quite enough monsters popping around corners already, thanks.”

The dhampire looked the hunter up and down. “You look… unwell,” Alucard said. “No cuts or bruises, though. Truly remarkable considering what you put yourself through on a nightly basis.” 

Trevor paused, slightly shell shocked by the creature’s words. First, he has the nerve to examine him like he’s a cattle at an auction. Second, he says… what did he say? The image of a tall, cloaked figure with moonlit hair, walking along a darkened street, slid through his mind. No… he couldn’t have. He always made it back alone. Why would he have been there? He would’ve killed him. Whiskey made him hotheaded, and he’d had at least 2 glasses. He would’ve killed him, or, at least, they would’ve sparred. 

Alucard watched, seemingly amused, as Trevor attempted to put the pieces together. Sylpha’s concerned remained on the tea leaves, but she looked up intermittently to assess the situation. The Belmont was being ridiculous, yet again. Making up reasons to doubt the Chosen One, probably out of frustration that it wasn’t him.

Trevor flinched when he felt cloth hit his chest. 

“The bath is getting cold,” Alucard said, taking a seat by Sylpha.

Trevor grit his teeth, whipped off the cloth, and trudged toward the bathroom, wishing he could pull the truth about last night from the dhampire’s mouth along with a few of his teeth.

\--

_Tepes_

The Belmont looked much better after a bath, the dhampire thought. His brown hair shown like mahogany, and even his pallor, darkened by self-induced alcohol poisoning, looked brighter, even healthy. He was like the bedraggled work horse for whom time and care revealed a stallion beneath. 

Alucard smiled to himself. He was comparing a Belmont to an auctioned horse. Well, that was essentially his place at the moment. He was no better than a spoiled purebred. Someone who knew his own strength, but didn’t know how to use it.

Despite the cold, the hunter carried sweat on his brow. He rested his hand against his forehead as if wishing to rip the headache from his skull. Given his silence and refusal to walk alongside the dhampire and the speaker, he must have recalled pieces of the night before--moments of vulnerability. Easy prey, Alucard thought, willing the thought from his mind as quickly as it came. 

Yes, he was still in need of something more substantial than leftovers.

Unfortunately, a day of traversing narrow and increasingly more treacherous mountain paths lay ahead of them, and then who knows how long before they reached the caverns. They’d need to keep their energy up somehow.

“Need meat,” the hunter spoke for the first time since they’d left the inn. 

He walked like a man possessed toward a cart selling rotisserie chicken. Sypha huffed, shrugged her shoulders, and gave Alucard a look that said ‘there’s no controlling him.’ 

“I guess we should stock up on provisions one last time,” she said. “These caverns you speak of have stayed hidden for centuries. I doubt we could get there in less than two days. I wonder if…” 

Like a scene through a foggy window, Sypha’s voice blurred out of focus. Alucard watched, spellbound, as Trevor’s adam’s apple bobbed while he bartered with the merchant, hearing, almost feeling, his heartbeat accelerating as he lay hands on his meal. How he envied him, satiating his hunger so out in the open. The spell broke when the man took his first (far too large) mouthful of meat. Alucard turned in disgust. He could never stand the way humans mangled their food, and Trevor was particularly thoughtless.

“Are you alright?” Sypha was looking at him as if he’d turned green. 

“Yes, of course,” he said, hoping he could convince Sypha that all was well, and he was not inwardly shaking with the instinctual desire he’d recently reawoken. “From here, I believe it will take three, perhaps four days to reach the caverns. We will need our strength when we get there. It’s well guarded.” 

Sypha nodded. “I’ll purchase more food for Trevor and myself. I think I underestimated his stomach, and I’d rather not hear him complain of hunger.”

She peered at Trevor’s wolfish manners as he ate his feast from the side of the road like a scavenging animal. “Just don’t let him buy any spirits while I’m gone. And Alucard?”

“Yes?” he must’ve appeared distracted again judging by how she considered him curiously. 

“Do you need any… I mean, if you need any…”

“I will hunt tonight,” he replied. “Animal blood can nourish me for short periods.”

Her shoulders dropped. The word “hunt” must have caught her off guard. For all her trust in him, he was still, first and foremost, a monster. One half creature of Hell. Not quite the angel the Speakers had hoped for.

“Anytime you need to… you know. We need you,” she added, her eyes pleading.

He nodded in response, and she headed for the one vegetable stand on the street. 

He should’ve hunted last night, he thought. And not for animals.

A riotous belch rang out like a church bell through the quiet streets. Trevor tossed the bones from his meal behind him as he approached.

“You know, I think you might look worse than I do,” he said, wiping his mouth on his coat sleeve.

This, Alucard thought, was the best, the only, descendent the Belmonts had to offer? It all seemed a bit put-on, though. A brutish act meant to divide the hunter from his noble roots. Alucard wasn’t buying it. 

God, he wondered what he tasted like, hoped the shitty booze and food hadn’t completely tainted whatever saccharine secret hid in the Belmont’s bloodline.

“I am fine.” Alucard crossed his arms, assessing the now much livelier man. “Though I am a bit concerned.”

“Concerned for what?” Trevor stretched his arms above his head, showing a sliver of stomach. So the awful lifestyle hadn’t ruined that.

“Concerned that you may cause me to lose my sanity.” 

Alucard stared him down more openly than before, trying to gauge whether he’d reclaimed his memory of the night before.

Surprisingly, Trevor laughed. “Afraid it’s too late for that. This whole world’s already gone insane.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops I keep writing too much.


	4. Vex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Action!!!! Time.

_Belmont_

It was a long, long, long day. They finally called it quits for the night when Sypha noticed the dhampire struggling to keep up, even stumbling over an exposed root. 

Weakling, Trevor thought. This was their great warrior?

He was remembering pieces from the night before. A man’s fist colliding with his stomach. A tall, shadowing figure walking him home. Bits of broken conversation. Blood, payment, sex. An invitation.

He’s thirsty. He’ll be useless in a day or two.

They sat around a bonfire lit with the help of Sypha’s hands. Sypha, who’d thought to bring a small pot in her satchel, was cooking up some soup ordeal--all vegetables, of course, but she’d promised to throw in some rabbit she’d purchased for Trevor.

Alucard, sitting opposite of Sypha, flipped through a palm-sized journal written in an indecipherable text. Something he’d stolen from his father’s keep, and neither Trevor nor Sypha could make any sense of it (though Trevor would have liked to look at it again, if Alucard would let him). 

“Well, a pint sure would be nice right now,” Trevor announced, stretching his legs out before him as he reclined on a mossy log. “You know, after a whole day of walking through the middle of fucking nowhere so we can get to some cave I’ve, for some reason, never heard of.” 

“Ale is the last thing you need,” Sypha said, not looking up from her work. “I will not have you treating our battle with Dracula like a drunken bar fight.” 

Trevor through his hands over his hand in mock surprise. “I’m sorry, I had no idea we were minutes from Dracula’s castle. Why didn’t you say something, Alucard?” 

The dhampire remained entranced in the book, lips moving in silent incantation. 

“Alucard…” Trevor’s voice rose. “Hey, Al. Fang boy.” 

Nothing. Wasn’t he supposed to have heightened senses or something? Oh well. He snatched the book from Alucard’s hands with ease. 

“What are you--” Alucard stood as Trevor walked back toward his log, flipping through the pages of his precious book. 

“Just a bunch of bloody scribbles,” he said, shaking his head.

Before he could register the dhampire’s movements, the book was out of his hands and back into Alucard’s. 

“Because it was not meant for your eyes, Belmont,” he hissed, his silvery hair nearly standing up on its ends, like an enraged cat. 

For a moment, his eyes flashed crimson. Trevor’s blue eyes bore back fiercely, trying to read beneath Alucard’s temper. He saw anger, desperation, annoyance. All the symptoms of hunger shown in the other man’s bleeding irises. 

“Nice to finally meet you, son of Dracula.”

In the hunter’s hands appeared his serpentine whip, though he kept it by his hip. 

“I hope you’ve brought something from home to quench your thirst,” he warned, “otherwise I’ll be taking matters into my own hands.”

The dhampire’s feral expression levelled, and his statuesque demeanor returned. “I can handle myself, human. Far better than you can.”

“Is that so?” Trevor asked, still gripping his weapon. “Better start trying, then.”

“Alucard...” 

Both men turned, almost startled by the Speaker staring pensively from the fire. 

“Perhaps you should go take care of your hunger as well,” she continued. “We’ll need our strength, remember.”

Trevor nearly fell over. “Are you giving the vampire permission to go on a killing spree?” He cried. “Brilliant! I can’t have a drop of ale, but he can go off and suck someone dry?”

Alucard snarled. Poor choice of words.

“We are hours from the nearest village,” Sypha said, rummaging through her bag. “And he can drink animal blood.” She pulled out a large glass jar filled with dark red liquid. 

“Pig’s blood,” she said, tossing the canister toward the dhampire, who caught it seemingly before it left her hands. “I purchased it from the market earlier. We can’t afford to have you out hunting alone. Sorry.”

“No, thank you for your kindness. This will serve me well.” Alucard pocketed the blood in his coat pocket as if it were nothing more than an apple. 

More hazy memories flashed through Trevor’s ale-filtered mind. ‘Animal blood when I must. Human blood when it’s there.’ Or around, or something. So animal blood would do for now, but what about later? Could he survive an attack? Did it matter? The stubborn, bitter voice in Trevor’s head tried to shout above all the rest. We could do this without him, couldn’t we?

Trevor watched Alucard’s float flutter like bat wings in the wind as he retreated somewhere to drink his substitute meal. There was something so powerful, so frighteningly supernatural about his presence, he could feel it leave the campsite with him. The air felt lighter without him there. Fragile. 

“Mind your business, Trevor.” Sypha pushed a bowl of watery broth with chunks of overcooked rabbit against Trevor’s chest, forcing him to return his whip to his holster. “We all need to eat.”

\---

_Tepes._

Night descended. Sleep, for the humans, came easily. So did the monsters.

Alucard snapped the neck of a spindly creature, some sort of mountain goblin drawn out of its lair by the intensity of the three travelers’ auras. It perished with a guttural grown, but there were more coming. He could sense hundreds emerging from faraway caves, drawn toward their camp as if under a spell.

Sypha awoke, barely opening her eyes before channeling energy in her palms and aiming it at a foul, boney figure crawling over a boulder. The night echoed with the slithering of demented creatures.

“Get up,” Alucard hissed, pulling a sleeping Trevor by his collar. 

“Why, what? Oh shit.” He yawned and pulled out his whip. “The first good night’s sleep I’ve had in ages.”

With a crap of his whip, he sliced a goblin’s head from its neck. His brethren, quickly overtaking the circle of light, screamed in anger. 

“Oh, fuck off,” Trevor huffed, throwing a blade into one’s neck as Sypha’s magic soared past to strike another climbing up a tree. 

Trevor stopped to watch Alucard slice a demon entirely in two with his sword, his blade slashing right down the middle. 

“Impressive,” he offered. “But messy.”

The dhampire turned just in time to throw his sword into a creature running toward the hunter at full speed. 

“Could you stop admiring me for a moment and actually fight?” he asked, inches from Trevor’s face.

Trevor sent his whip winding around the throat of a goblin who pounced from a tree. 

“I should ask the same of you,” he said, grinning as the grotesque body soared above them and crashed into a rock, expelling blood and bone.

“Could you both shut up and help me?” Sypha called.

She held her hands above her head, attempting to conjure a more potent beam of magic than what seemed necessary for the pitiful creatures attacking them.

“Behind you!” she screamed. 

Alucard turned to see an enormous troll, a massive figure shrouded in darkness, with gleaming horns the size of his sword and sharpened to a point. And it was barreling straight for Trevor. Without thinking, he lunged, pushing the man out of the way to bear the monster’s brunt force. He felt himself fly through the air as it lifted him with one massive paw and tossed him at a tree like an unwanted toy. 

He crumbled, momentarily dazed. 

“Alucard!” He could hear a man and woman’s voice call out.

A great blast of light, like a lightning bolt, illuminated the darkness as he blinked his eyes open. Sypha stood, arms outstretched, before the monster, sending forth ethereal beams as Trevor whipped his weapon around the troll’s legs and sent him crashing to the ground. The earth shook, and the creature bellowed as Sypha’s magic slowly reduced him to ash. 

“You idiot,” he heard as Trevor rushed to his side. “What am I, a damsel in distress? I could’ve handled a stupid troll without your acts of martyrdom.”

Alucard winced as he set up, feeling the broken bones rest themselves. 

“It wanted you, for whatever reason. It sensed your bloodline.”

“Alucard, are you alright?” Sypha crouched beside him. 

Now he had two humans doting on him. A joy in any other circumstances. 

“I will be,” he reassured her, though stopping short of standing when he felt a bone still out of place.

The hunter’s hands were on his shoulders, gently--then not so gently--gripping him as he drew him up into a standing position. Trevor looked at him suspiciously. 

“Everything in one piece?” he asked. 

“Almost everything,” Alucard replied. 

“No more are coming,” Sypha said, her eyes closed in concentration. “Not now. Those were not from Dracula’s army, were they?”

“No,” Alucard nodded his head in Trevor’s direction. “They wanted him. I’m not sure why.”

“I’ve pissed plenty of people off in my lifetime,” Trevor said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if I happened to piss off a few trolls along the way.”

Alucard almost smiled. “I need to rest momentarily. I’m afraid that took a bit out of me.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Sypha asked, true compassion in her voice and worry in her eyes.

“I will need to drink the rest of my provisions, and then I should be fine,” he answered, trying to sound reassuring. 

If his last meal had been true flesh and blood, ripped from the living and not the dead, he would have already recovered. He cursed himself for not indulging before they ended up here and he cursed himself for being what he was--a being who fought to preserve mankind while vying to destroy it.

“There are still hours left before sunrise,” Alucard added. “Please, get as much rest as you can. I can care for my wounds.” 

Sypha seemed to agree, though she hesitated in thought. “The moon will be in its first quarter tomorrow. Perhaps we should sleep in daylight and walk beneath the moon. But for now, please rest. I will stay awake. I need to practice…” 

The Speaker wandered toward the smoldering fire, materializing flames in her palms. Once she was far enough out of hearing, Trevor leaned in close.

“We will talk. Behind that rock, somewhere she can’t see. Just… soon.” He glared as he walked back toward his effects, wiping his blade with a handkerchief. 

Alucard tried to not look eager.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just having fun. 
> 
> Next chapter is half written and yes there's biting.


	5. Strain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello it's blood time.

_Belmont._

Trevor leaned casually against the large exposed rock surrounding the campsite. His racing thoughts, however, were anything but casual. What the Hell was he doing? What the Hell was he thinking, even proposing it? And not that he cared to know, but Christ, what would his ancestors think? 

If he was going to really trust him, this half-vampire, then he had to, right? He had to know. Besides, the wretched thing wasn’t much use to any of them limping about on the dregs of animal blood. It’d be like Trevor trying to fight with only Sypha’s watery, meatless broth in his system. 

Yes, there were reasons. He wasn’t insane. Then again, who gave a shit if he was? Who was going to stop him? Not the decaying corpses of the Belmont line, that was for sure. At least, he was pretty sure no one would rise from the dead just to chastise him.

A shadow passed through the flickering firelight. The half-man, half-monster stood before him, impassive as always. Trevor gestured to keep their voices down. When Trevor had walked away to “take a piss”, as he told Sypha, she’d been muttering incantations and tracing invisible sigils in the cold dirt.

“What shall we talk about, Belmont?” Alucard cocked his head, nearly slurring his words in exhaustion.

Trevor was already shirking his coat, preferring action to words. 

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Alucard said, feigning confusion. “But it does raise some.”

“You know what the fuck this is.” Trevor rolled up his left sleeve to bare his forearm. “You’re weak as shit, and we both know animal blood is about as useful to you as Sypha’s vegetable water is to me. Not a word of this gets out to Sypha, and you never ask this of her.”

“Do you know what you’re proposing?” the dhampir asked, eyeing the hunter’s exposed flesh.

“I’m proposing that you take exactly as much as I allow you,” Trevor answered, refusing to look up, “and then you shut the fuck up and fight.”

“Every night.”

Trevor looked up, in shock at Alucard’s forwardness. 

He continued: “A little, every night. I will take the smallest amount I need to stay ‘useful.’” At the last word, his lips upturned into an expression that was not quite a smile. “I will not tell Sypha.”

“Sure. Every night. And I get to hold this,” Trevor retrieved his sharpest dagger, flipping it in the air for show, “to your throat. Just to be certain.” He raised the tip of the blade toward Alucard’s cheek. “Don’t know how good I might taste, and I can’t have you offing me so easily.”

Alucard did smile this time. “I wouldn’t be so cocky. But, yes. We have an agreement.” 

He outstretched his hand. Trevor was, again, surprised by this gesture. He supposed this was a business agreement, in a way, so he shrugged and shook the creature’s icy hand. 

“One other thing,” Alucard said, still gripping Trevor’s palm. “You can wield your blade as a precaution, but no using it on yourself for this proposition.”

Trevor squinted in confusion. Then it dawned on him. Fangs.

“What do you think this is?” he hissed. “An invitation to a banquet? If you think I’m letting those teeth anywhere near my veins, you’re more far gone than I thought.”

“What is it, Belmont?” the dhampir asked slyly, retracting his hand to cross his arms. “Do I frighten you?”

Trevor swore he was just showing off now, as he made a point to open his mouth wide enough for the moonlight to refract off his pearly teeth.  
“Not afraid, asshole,” he said, his face burning light scarlet. “I don’t know where your disgusting mouth has been!”

Alucard sighed. “I have not fed from a human in more than a year. My mouth has touched no one, human or animal.” He looked up, pensively, eyes seeming to trace the stars. “I know that it sounds inane, but vampires have evolved to feed cleanly and efficiently. We do not spread human disease, and our puncture wounds heal instantly.” He looked down at Trevor’s blade. “You would waste too much blood slitting your wrists with a dirty knife, and you risk disease walking around with an open wound. All to save your precious dignity.”

“MY precious dignity?” Trevor whisper-screamed, nearly pressing his now fuming red face against Alucard’s moonlit one. “I came to you to offer you my fucking blood, and you have the nerve to mock me? Still?” 

“You want to trust me, Trevor,” he muttered, “then trust me.”

He’d never said he wanted to… was he reading his mind? 

“Fucking vampires...” 

Trevor shook his head. Now it was his turn to stare out into the night as pensively as he could manage, bottom lip caught between his teeth. He let out a long, resigned sigh and shrugged as if to say ‘fuck it, the world’s ending anyway.’

“Fine, we’ll play your game. I still get to kill you if you make a wrong move.”

Alucard nodded in approval. “I will not.”

“Alright, great…” Trevor teetered back and forth like an antsy toddler. “So… how the hell does this work?”

“Well, you have to stand still,” Alucard answered, taking a moment to tie his hair back with a ribbon. “Do you think you can manage that?”

“Do you still want my blood, or would you rather insult me all night instead?” 

He hoped the creature couldn’t hear or feel how his heart raced, but he supposed he would in a minute anyway. Fear, disgust, curiosity… and something else, all emulsified inside of him, threatening to bubble over. But he wouldn’t back down. A Belmont never backs down.

In fascination, he watched as Alucard’s sharp white teeth became even more prominent, as if elongated in arousal. Well, that’s a new one. He wondered if other parts of him… Trevor tried to force the thought from his mind before it went much further. He especially tried to ignore it when Alucard took off his coat, leaving him in just a stupid white tunic that showed off far too much of his stupid muscles.

“You will feel a prick, then a pull. I do not know your tolerance for pain, but given that I’m not taking much, it shouldn’t hurt. Much.” He looked directly into the hunter’s eyes with a sudden seriousness. “I will take exactly what I need and no more. If I do go too far, please say my name. If I don’t stop after you’ve said my name, you can attack me.”  
  
“‘Alucard’ is our safe word?” Trevor chuckled, shaking his head again in disbelief. “Fine, fine. Just get on with it. Give me your worst, vampire.”

The dhampir studied the hunter one last time before appearing satisfied with whatever he found there and grasping his exposed forearm. Assessing the flesh before him, he leaned toward a vein near the crook of Trevor’s elbow. Before Trevor could process it, he sunk his teeth in. 

“Ah!” 

A gasp slipped from Trevor’s lips. He knew it would hurt, but not like this--at first, a pain like a hundred wasps. Then, slowly, a softening. It felt as if he were standing next to a great fire. Nearly burning, but almost comfortable. 

Before Trevor could close his eyes and nearly fall asleep, Alucard shoved him against the exposed rock, cradling the man’s arm like a prize as he sucked. His body, much closer now, felt oddly warm as well. As if the ice had melted from his bones. He made a small sound, almost a moan, as he drank from the hunter’s veins. 

A slow pull. That was all Trevor felt now that the pain subsided. And something strange, something that ran through his whole body like music or thunder. Whatever it was that set him ablaze now affected all of him. His unaffected arm reached toward the dhampir as if to drag him closer. He wanted more of whatever this was. It was better than liquor. Better than sex. Maybe. 

Then, suddenly, the spell was broken.

Alucard released his fangs, leaving only two small circles in his wake. No blood left the wound, no bruises. Only a slight reddish mark from where he’d fed. He was right. 

Trevor couldn’t help staring at his scarlet mouth. That was his… his blood. Blood he’d given willingly. Blood he’d give again.

“I…” He tried to speak.

Alucard’s eyes were red. Red. His hands were in Trevor’s hair, and his mouth was drawing near Trevor’s mouth, and his eyes were red.

And they were kissing. Open-mouthed. Trevor tasted his own blood on Alucard’s mouth, metallic and bitter to his human tongue, and he bent into the taste, still high from the feeding. His body did not feel like his own, but it felt all the same. He wished, for a moment, that those teeth now meeting his own would move toward his neck next. Stirred by longing, his hands gripped Alucard's sides, urging him closer. Near enough to feel what he swore was a heart beating in the other man's chest. Elegant, long-nailed hands snaked around the hunter's waist to press against his back, locking them in an embrace as he explored his mouth with his bloody tongue.

Okay, so the spell hadn’t quite broken. Not until a distinct, feminine voice broke through the fray.

“Trevor? Alucard? Where on Earth did you go??” 

Sypha had taken a break from her spellwork long enough to register their absence. Trevor wrenched his mouth from Alucard’s tongue.

“Fuck,” both men said in harmony.

They looked each other up and down, as if assessing a mirror. They came to the same consensus: this was, indeed, fucked. 

“Sorry. Thank you,” Alucard nodded, eyes on the ground as he wiped his mouth of the hunter’s blood.

“Don’t mention it…” Trevor trailed off before regaining his composure. “Seriously, don’t mention it.” 

"Agreed."

Trevor spat his own blood on the ground, wrinkling his nose. Well, wasn't the first time he'd tasted his own blood. Certainly wasn't the usual way, though. He unravelled his sleeve, making sure to cover his small yet revealing wound.

“So… tomorrow night?” 

“Yes,” Alucard answered, straightening out his coat. “I won’t… it won’t be as much next time.”

“I feel fine,” Trevor said. “You didn’t scare me, vampire. Or dhampir. Whatever.”

Alucard smiled.

“You may have frightened me more than I frightened you,” he said.

And, with that cryptic statement lingering in the air, he left, making sure he was the first to comfort Sypha about their whereabouts. They were only talking, that was all. That was all.  
\---

Trevor sat by the fire for the rest of the night, unsure of what to do with this newfound pent up energy. He wanted to drag the other man back, make him finish what he started. He wanted to stab something. He wanted to scream. He wanted to fuck, honestly, and it wasn’t much of a surprise.

He couldn’t escape his thoughts. Alucard sinking his teeth in his arm. The verge of pain and pleasure and something unnameable. Something oddly addictive. Fuck, why hadn’t he warned him of that? Was that the plan all along? He should have read the goddamn books in his family library. Maybe then he would’ve known what he was getting into. It was his own fault for trusting a vampire. Dhampir. What was the goddamned difference? He had fangs, and he’d put his fangs in Trevor, and that made Trevor a grade A dumbass. No turning back now. 

God willing, there’d be something for him to kill or fuck tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment if you like or have suggestions! Thanks y'all.


	6. Ethereal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I read up on some Romanian folklore before writing this. If I got anything horribly wrong, please let me know.
> 
> Moving up to a mature rating for future chapters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to apologize because I accidentally posted this when I meant to only save it as a draft. Sorry. 
> 
> *note* I shortened the chapter and will be posting the rest as another chapter later!

_Tepes._

They continued walking as soon as the first faint light of dawn cast its colors on the earth, the two humans baggy eyed from their restless night. 

Despite their bodily exhaustion, both seemed to hum with an intensity that outmatched Alucard’s. Sypha, rathered than frightened by the troll affair, was enthralled with her new discovery, spouting off theories as she skipped over the rocky trail. Trevor was especially restless, half-walking, half-leaping ahead of the group and toying with his weapons like a hyperactive child.  
  
Probably trying to distract himself from memories of their post-battle rendezvous. Alucard wondered if he’d already forgotten that this would be a recurring appointment. 

So what had happened? The dhampir reasoned that his reawoken bloodthirst combined with the need for a distraction in these confusing times had guided his lips to places he hadn’t expected. It was instinctual and reckless and made him question his sanity, but he couldn’t quite say he regretted it either. Bloodletting, in its purest form, was… intimate. And kissing him, he supposed, was a far better reaction than draining him dry, which he’d desired more than anything in that moment. 

It shouldn’t have affected him that way. His blood. It was like medicine and poison all at once. It healed and killed him, and he would have drank it all until he’d died and come back to life a hundred times.

Oh yes, Sypha was talking. He decided to place his inner monologue on hold and listen. 

“I must admit, I haven’t spent nearly as much time in the forest as a Speaker should have,” she said. “We mostly travelled from to different villages, helping people. But I’ve heard the stories, of course. The ielele, the jidorvi… Do you think that large… thing could’ve been a giant?”

“It’s possible,” Alucard said. “It certainly wasn’t from my father’s army.”

“Not possible,” Trevor said, hacking away at vines and twigs in his path. “They’re extinct.” 

“How? Did your family kill them all?” Alucard asked, sour with contempt.

Trevor shook his head. “Blajini, they also called them. The Kind Ones. Belmonts had no business killing them off. Some other, less kind monsters did.” 

He looked pointedly behind him for a moment, as if to send Alucard a stern look, before swiftly swiveling back around with reddened cheeks. 

“I think they could still be out there,” Sypha said. 

She looked wistfully at the tangle of trees and moss that surrounded them, her eyes as wide and blue as the Black Sea. Alucard entertained, for a moment, how he would have much preferred Sypha to Trevor, especially given that she had magic running through her veins instead of hunter’s blood (ignoring how ridiculously good that blood, for whatever reason, had tasted). The Speaker was, well, beautiful and astute. Even in the dark, she seemed to glow more golden than the sun. He was almost certain she would invite him in, given her caring nature. 

It was for the best, though, keeping the arrangement just between the hunter and himself. Trevor had more practice running on exhausted energy, and Sypha was far more valuable. Still, he thought as he watched the man swing from an unsturdy branch that promptly snapped in two, sending his ass careening to the dirt… why him?

“Honestly, Trevor?” Sypha’s palm clasped her forehead. “You are behaving weirder than usual.” 

“What?” he rubbed his backside and winced. “I’m just ready to get to this bloody cave is all. Guess I’m a bit excited to see what wonders Alucard has in store for us.” He grinned mockingly, then winced again. 

“Are you attempting to fly there?” Alucard asked, stopping to take in the man’s foolishness. 

Trevor opened his mouth as if to make some clever or crude retort, but no words came out. He was acting strangely. It was almost adorable.

“Come on!” Sypha slid between the two, grabbed them by their coat sleeves and pulled them forward.

The path widened to accommodate the three of them, and the forest foliage became more sparse, revealing the cloudy sky above. He could hear so many sounds at once--the thump of rabbit paws followed by the gentle patter of a fox, rustle of squirrels carrying nuts back to their dens, and so many different bird songs, he could scarcely tell one from another. Alucard longed to change into his animal form. It would be so much easier, running across the forest floor on all fours, snatching deer by the throat just for the joy of it. Far too easy to outrun the humans, though.

“I’ve been thinking,” Sypha spoke, “if there are creatures here who want to kill Trevor because of a grudge against the Belmonts or something, there could be creatures who want to help him as well, yes? The kind ones. I keep seeing faerie rings.”

She pointed to a circle of stark white mushrooms along the path. 

“It could be good fae looking out for us,” she said.

“I somehow doubt that,” Alucard said, but he looked at Trevor as if interested in his response.

“I don’t know much about good monsters--creatures--beyond bedtime stories,” Trevor said. “Belmonts were more interested in stopping evil than making friends.”

“That’s quite obvious,” Alucard said.

Trevor did glare at him this time. Alucard was almost glad for it. 

“There could be creatures here no one has seen in centuries,” Sypha continued, ignoring the mens’ bickering. “Maybe Dracula’s war brought them out of hiding.”

“It’s possible,” Alucard said, noting another ring of small yellow fungi along the trail. “But I’m not sure what would interest them about a war against humans.”

“We used to live in harmony, you know,” Sypha said. “Long ago…”

“Before the church decided what was right and wrong,” Trevor mumbled, staring out into the forest just as Sypha had, but without an expression of hopefulness. “Decided it was best to burn it all down. A-fucking-men.”

Sypha looked, disquieted, at the unusually hushed man. She placed a hand on his arm. For a moment, Alucard wished he could be that way. Comforting, to anyone. It felt as if he were encroaching on an intimate moment. He crossed his arms, turning to look the other way.

“What’s wrong, vampire?” Trevor spoke, resuming his ordinary, provoking tone. “Can’t stand a bit of blasphemy?”

Alucard uncrossed his arms. “You’re going to Hell, Belmont,” he smiled.

“See you there,” He winked.

“You are a mess,” Sypha chuckled, pretending to punch Trevor in the arm.

But the quiet came back, eventually. They let it come. 

\---

The day passed. Sypha kept her ears perked and her senses alert for more signs of the Kind Ones, but, other than a ring of indigo mushrooms, they saw nothing out of the ordinary for the deep wood. 

When night emerged, they walked by Sypha’s light. Alucard’s eyes, like that of any nocturnal creature, could pierce through the dark, but he walked along the humans, despite his deep desire to outrun them and plunder the cave and the castle and all of this by himself.

They were descending now, down into what felt like the belly of a beast. Trevor’s sighs and groans grew louder with each step, until, quite suddenly, he plopped down upon a fallen tree, stretched his legs, and leaned back as if falling asleep. 

“That’s it,” the resting man said, “I’m spent. We either stop here now and rest or one of you will be carrying me the rest of the way.”

Alucard’s eyes could have rolled out of his head, but he fought the urge to look even remotely bothered lest he draw another smart ass remark from Trevor’s lips. To his surprise, Sypha came to rest beside him.

“For once, I agree with you,” she sighed, looking thoroughly exhausted. “I know we are close--I can feel it, whatever it is, pulling me in--but we’re in no shape to face it now.” 

Alucard leaned against a tree. He kept forgetting how humans work, how they needed rest and food and, sometimes, conversation. They’d already stopped several times to take care of their (many) needs, but it couldn’t compare to a good night’s rest. Now that he thought about it, he recognized the fatigue in his own bones. 

“This isn’t exactly the best place to sleep, though,” Sypha said, poking Trevor’s leg as he pretended to sleep. “We’re too exposed.”

“You sleep,” Alucard said. “I can stand guard another night.” 

“No,” Sypha shook her head, “We all need rest. If we could just find a bit of shelter...”

Trevor raised his head sluggishly and squinted past Alucard’s shoulder. “What’s that?” He jerked his head in his direction.

Alucard craned his neck to peer behind him, sure that the human’s eyes were playing tricks on him. The flame in Sypha’s palm burned brighter.

“What IS that?” She gasped.

All three could now clearly see a distant man-made shape emerge from between the tangle of thorns and leaves. There seemed to be no clear path leading up to it, but it was unmistakably unlike the rocks surrounding it. It had to be--yes, that was it--a small thatch hut with a wooden door and even, perhaps, a few windows, illuminated by Sypha’s wavering light. Though no light shown from within, it appeared to be well-kept, possibly recently built.

“How the Hell could anyone live all the way out here?” Trevor said. 

“Maybe a hermit?” Sypha suggested. 

“Someone who chose to live far from civilization...” Alucard considered. “I wonder if they would welcome our company.”

Trevor scoffed. “I’m not passing up an opportunity for a warm place to sleep.” 

He walked toward their possible sanctuary, hacking apart the branches and vines in his newly made path. 

“Trevor, wait!” Sypha followed. “We need to be careful.” 

“I’m not afraid of whatever can fit in a wee little house,” Trevor said. 

Alucard walked leisurely behind, minutely aware of the shift in atmosphere as they approached the hut.

Trevor, naturally, approached first, knocking on the pristine door fearlessly. From up close, the hut seemed even more pristine, no scratch or signs of wear marring the glass windows or the wooden door.

The door remained closed, with no signs of life within. He knocked again. Ever the gentleman, Alucard thought. Sypha shone her light through the windows. 

“Someone must have lived here,” she observed. “I see a fireplace, a cauldron, some jars… A bed? Maybe two? This is too strange. Maybe whoever lives here went into town.”

Trevor gripped the doorknob. “If the door opens, I’m going in.”

Before Sypha or Alucard can protest, he turned the knob, and the door swung open. “Well, that’s an open invitation if I’ve ever seen one,” he said, walking in without a second thought.

Sypha, driven by curiosity, trailed cautiously. She lit a hanging gas lamp. Firelight licked the walls, painting the hut’s interior in light and shadow. Alucard, lingering by the door, could see the small treasures within: piles of blankets by the clean fireplace, jars of pickled foods lining the walls, unlabelled canisters of undoubtedly useful goods. All appeared untouched, as if it sat waiting for them. 

The Speaker traced her left hand against the walls as she walked about the room, furrowing her brow as she tried to sense what once or still lived within. Meanwhile, Trevor scouted the shelves. 

“I sense no danger here,” Sypha said, closing her eyes to focus. “But there is certainly something… otherworldly. Like an old magic. I haven’t felt anything like it before, but the feeling it emits is warm. Friendly.”

“Sure,” Trevor said, thoroughly unbothered. “And if whatever it is that owns this place comes back and isn’t happy to see us, I’m sure it won’t be hard to kill.”

He drew a bottle of viscous liquid, uncorked it and inhaled its scent. “Such hospitable hosts,” he said, pleased with whatever he’d found. 

“Maybe it is the kind ones,” Sypha mused. “Alucard, what do you think?” 

She expected to see the dhampir just behind her, but still he stood just outside the front door.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Sypha said. “Do we need to invite you in? I know of the legend, I just didn’t think…”

“Thank you, but I don’t think it would help,” Alucard answered. “I can detect a shield meant to block out my kind. A powerful spell.”

He held his hand up to the door frame to demonstrate how he couldn’t even pierce the threshold. 

“It’s been here for a long time, though,” he said, “so I don’t think it’s targeting me specifically.”

“But... why? How?” Sypha said with wonder.

Trevor opened another jar and sniffed, grinning at whatever he found.

“Magic.” Alucard shrugged. “You sensed it wasn’t dark magic either, and it’s nothing I recognize. Perhaps you were right. It could be a gift.” 

“You hear that?” Trevor piped in, settling down with an assortment of bottles and jars. “Our Wise Companion thinks you’re right. So how about lighting the fireplace before my limbs freeze and fall off?”

Sypha rolled her eyes and cast her magic toward the fireplace, which sparked to life. 

“I suppose if this is for us…” She trailed off, taking her turn at perusing the shelves. “Do you need anything, Alucard?...Alucard?”

In an instant, the dhampir disappeared and then reappeared by the door, this time with a bucket of sloshing liquid in his hands. 

“I noticed a well,” he said, nodding his head in a direction just north of the hut. “If the house is safe, I’m sure the water is too.”

“Thank you!” Sypha reached out to take the bucket from Alucard, looking slightly guilty about the procedure. “I’m so sorry you can’t come in. I could try to weaken the protection spell?” 

“Don’t,” Alucard said. “You’re much safer in there with it intact. If I can’t come in, neither can the other night monsters.” 

“But you must feel cold?” she asked.

“If I could feel cold, then yes, perhaps. I’m immune.” 

Trevor’s voice rose from his burrowing spot near the fireplace. “Stop worrying, Sypha,” he said, his mouth full of pickled tripe. “He’ll be fine.”

Sypha rested her pointer finger on her chin in faux-contemplation before walking over to jerk a blanket or two from beneath Trevor’s hide. 

“Hey! What do you think you’re--” 

“Here,” Sypha said, offering the cloth to Alucard. “At least get some rest tonight.”

“What do you think he needs those for?” Trevor complained. “He spent a year inside a fucking wooden box!”

Alucard smiled in thanks (for both the gesture and Trevor’s indignation). “Thank you. I will take just one.”

Without hesitation and with a force that shocked even Alucard, Sypha threw the returned blanket at Trevor’s vulnerable head. He nearly toppled over on impact, uttering curses as he took a long draw from his bottle.

"I'm going to find something we can eat warm, so don't go ruining your appetite," Sypha said, pointing at the jars of pickled mysteries Trevor had gathered before him.

"I'm a bottomless pit, Sypha." He opened another jar and peered into its contents before reaching in to grab another mystery pickle. "Just choose something with meat in it, please."

She found a few jars of meat stew and set to warming it in the cauldron, controlling the intensity and direction of the flames to cook it through. Soon the hut was awash in the smell of cooked meat and potatoes, and warm enough for the humans to take off their coats. Sypha gave Alucard a chair so he could sit by the door frame while the others ate around the fire. For the first time in a long time, they felt truly comfortable. Even Alucard, who watched the others eagerly swallowing mouthfuls of stew with a tinge of jealously he'd never admit to. 

It'd be his turn to feed, soon enough.


	7. The Culling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you read Ch 6 before I edited, this will seem not chronological; it's meant to take place in the same night. 
> 
> Fairy shenanigans.

_Belmont._

They kept the door open. Alucard sat on a chair Sypha placed outside for him and read his secrets by lamplight. Trevor grew more talkative as the night drew on, letting words trickle out like water from a leaking faucet. His were mostly stories of bar fights and drunken travels, stories Alucard half listened to as he read. Eventually, Sypha’s half-hearted responses faded to quiet snores. 

“Sypha?” He nudged her gently, one hand on his bottle of sin. 

The only response he got was a sleep-drenched sigh from the Sypha-shaped bundle of blankets beside him.

“Out like a light,” he said, taking another sip. 

“Well, what are you waiting for?” he called out in what barely constituted a loud whisper. “Come and get me.” 

He raised his left arm, the one still tainted by two pretty puncture wounds hidden beneath his well-worn tunic. Alucard could pretend to read his stupid book all he wanted, but Trevor knew--had felt--the other man’s eyes on the back of his head for half the night. 

The dhampir didn’t even look up from his reading material. “You’re drunk,” he said, turning a page.

“Pffft.” Trevor laughed softly. “Barely. One bottle just gets me started.”

He put down the nearly empty bottle and heaved his tired body from the warm bearskin rug, wincing as he stood. His hands rested on top of the door frame. 

“So, are you going to take me, vampire?” 

He almost broke down in laughter at the last word. Vampire. Ridiculous. None of this made sense, and none of it mattered. 

No longer able to concentrate, Alucard closed his book reluctantly, giving Trevor the attention he so clearly desired. 

“Oh, that’s right,” Trevor said. “You can’t get me, because you’re not invited in.”

The dhampir stood and cocked his head, feigning confusion. “And yet, this somehow feels like an invitation.” 

Well, this wasn’t going how he’d planned. Trevor had figured he’d be thirsty by now. In fact, he’d expected him to beg. Now that he’d seen his reaction, though, it made perfect sense. A Tepes would never beg. 

“If only I had that power,” Trevor satirized. “Alas, I’m just a poor human, confined to my fate of nice, warm places.”

“You’re very bad at that, you know.” Alucard, tiring of Trevor’s antics, made to sit back down.

“Bad at--” 

From the distance, Trevor heard it. A sound like a street performer playing upon glass, a sound like underwater church bells. It almost sounded like--and there, again, undoubtedly this time. A feminine peel of laughter, only filtered through a thick screen, like light through fog.

“Did you hear that?” He leaned forward, peering out into the dark wood.

“Yes.” Even Alucard turned to look for its source.

Hahahaha

It came from much closer now. Trevor left the safety of the hut, but not before unsheathing his knife. 

“Hello!” he called. “Show your face, coward.”

“Now you’re just giving it more to laugh at,” Alucard said teasingly, though he placed one hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Hush…” 

He stared intently between the trees, narrowing his focus like a hound tracking a fox. Slivers of faded starlight half-forming the shape of human bodies hovered in the edges of his vision. They looked like women in the same way clouds looked like shapes if you stare long enough. The longer he looked, the more defined their features became. 

“We’re surrounded,” Alucard said. “I saw them appear the moment you started doing your bit.”

“So… what do we do?” 

Trevor still had his blade ready for action. It seemed wrong to charge at a group of what now definitely looked like very beautiful, long-haired women who, um, weren’t wearing any sort of clothes he recognized; it didn’t seem right, however, to go back inside and pretend nothing had happened. His whole body buzzed with a supernatural charge. He hadn’t felt this way since, well. Since he’d first seen Alucard rise from his coffin. 

It was the unnaturalness of it. He’d just come to the door to do some good-hearted teasing and maybe get his blood sucked, and now he was being stared down by a herd of nymphs. And they’d laughed at him, which was just rude.

“Alucard, I said what do we--and of course he’s gone. Wonderful.” 

Trevor felt a pair of cold, delicate hands press against his eyes as his consciousness fled. 

\--

He didn’t wake up so much as he became aware that he was dreaming. 

His dream took place in a cave, of all places. An aurora borealis of jewel colors--teal and indigo and violet--danced along the stone walls. He could hear water dripping from the cave roof, landing in what must have been great pools all around him. And he could feel the fluttering of almost transparent hands all around him, accompanied by the same melodic laughter he’d heard by the hut. 

The clouds in his eyes dispersed as he blinked, and the amorphous white shapes floating around him formed into full flesh-and-blood bodies. A woman with long, dark hair like a sheet of night and moonlit skin leaned forward with a mischievous smile and planted her lips upon his. He tasted dark honey as she pulled away. When he, without thinking, leaned forward to capture the taste again, he found that his hands were bound above him, his body half propped against the wall and half in recline. 

The sound of their merriment resounded from the cave walls, echoing until it reverberated in his ears. Their human shapes seemed to multiple and fade, as if his eyes were crossed. Trevor thought he might throw up.

This dream was bullshit.

Continuing that train of thought, Trevor realized he was not the only man in the cave. Across from him rested the sleeping form of Alucard. His hands, for whatever reason, weren’t bound. With his head bowed, his yellow hair spilled all the way to the floor.

‘Hey’, Trevor would’ve said, possibly followed by ‘you bastard’, if he’d been able to speak at all. Instead, the honey on his tongue seemed to mush all the sounds together. The only noise that came out was a pitiful moan.

With a slow shake of his head, the dhampir appeared to waken in body, if not in mind. A hoard of evanescent creatures, quickly shifting from amorphous cloud to human form, surrounded him as he blinked open his golden eyes. The tallest figure, a nymph with silver hair and lightly shimmering skin, like an ocean pearl, whispered in his ear. Whatever she said had Alucard suddenly roused and alert, and creeping toward Trevor’s prone form like a lioness stalking its prey.

“What!” Trevor was surprised to find that he could now speak, though his lips still tasted of honey. “What the hell did you tell him?” 

The dark-haired nymph by his side--the same one from before, maybe, they all blended together, didn’t they?--captured his chin and leaned in to plant a message in the hunters’ ear. 

“ _Toate la timpul lor"_.”

Ok… and that means… what? Before Trevor could ponder it further, he was confronted by Alucard’s impending approach. The tall, pale man drew ever closer to his prone frame. Every bit of the hunger, the desperation he’d hoped for earlier now showed itself unencumbered by pride or distaste. It was in the slant of his eyes, the red of his lips. He pulsed with hunger, and he was close to satiating it. An odd stirring Trevor didn’t dare acknowledge started in his stomach and embarked elsewhere. 

This was a dream, Trevor reminded himself. Just a dream.

Paper-light hands cascaded down his body, accompanied by fluttering bat wing giggles and ephemeral kisses upon his apple red cheeks. 

“Come, come,” they called, their voices seeming to emit from the cave walls.

Come he did. Much sooner than Trevor expected. There were hands, long and elegant, upon his shoulders, long blonde hair spilling upon his chest, a flicker of scarlet in his eyes as he dared to look up; then mouth, then teeth, sinking politely between his neck and shoulder. The forbidden place. 

If this were not a dream, Trevor would have screamed and fought. He would have stabbed a stalactite through Alucard’s chest. 

But this was a dream. This was whatever Trevor wanted it to be. The black-haired nymph stroked her fingers through his hair, and he sighed, feeling only pleasure and warmth and none of the pain. He was almost mad about that part. He’d pictured it hurting much more. This was too easy. 

As if in response to Trevor’s complaints, the dhampir drew deeper, sending jolts of blissful pain. The hunter keeled, the nymph’s slender fingers twisting through his hair and baring neck in full. Alucard’s grip tightened, his mouth fastening around Trevor’s neck wound. Trevor winced through his teeth. His body throbbed as if too close to fire, not able to withstand the heat. All the while, Alucard kneeled before his outstretched frame like a worshipper to a shrine.

The raven-haired nymph smiled down upon the feeding creature, not unlike a mother watching her children finish a meal. 

Alucard must have found this distasteful, because he broke, abruptly, tearing away to stare at Trevor with dilated pupils and a bloodied mouth.

“Trevor…” he spoke, sounding suddenly disenchanted. 

Trevor blinked his eyes open, looking drunk as ever, though this time from an unearthly source.

“Goodbye,” the nymph said, her voice like a bell, before metamorphosing into a black-winged raven and tearing for the sky with her other ethereal sisters.

“Well… at least I had fun,” Trevor shrugged before dissipating back into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Toate la timpul lor"" = All in good time (thank you KenrakenOkwaho!)


	8. Flux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can't get enough of those nymphs!

_Tepes._

The first thing Alucard noticed was how the dew-drenched grass upon his back had completely dampened his coat. 

The second thing he noticed was that he was alone. 

Scenes like smudged paintings swam through his thoughts. Shadows crossing cave walls. Ghostly hands. The hunter, looking very much like the hunted, with hands held above him by unseen bindings. Tan expanse of skin… His senses murdered, drowned in touch and taste. Mind muted as he’d fed as any animal would. Without a second thought. Without a thought at all. 

Gods, how long had it been before his consciousness snapped back into place? Seconds? Minutes? Hours?

He recalled the final scene, the smug smile on Trevor’s face. It hadn’t been that long. He was fine. 

Except, he wasn’t here.

“Belmont?” 

He walked the house’s perimeter, expecting that finding a reasonably well-built man covered in weapons wouldn’t be too much of an ordeal. 

Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be seen.

Pre-dawn light painted the forest in mellow blues and dark greens. The grass, aside from where Alucard had awoken, looked undisturbed. He closed his eyes, attuning to his preternatural senses. 

Nothing. They’d been around each other long enough for Alucard to recognize his aura, and, for better or worse, his scent, from quite far away. He could, thankfully, feel Sypha’s presence humming from within the thatch hut. Her aura was that of a bonfire on the first day of winter--a plume of heat and power cutting through the cold.

The tangerine glow of sunset seeped through the underbrush. Sypha would soon wake to an empty room. Alucard, hands on his temples, tried to think up some logical explanation as to how and why he knew their hunter was in the hands of wood nymphs. He thought of nothing. 

“Damn you, Belmont.”

He could wait, savor an hour or two of peace without the man’s preening and prodding. It would be pleasant, certainly, but Sypha would loathe him for it. He couldn’t betray her trust. He may not be in any immediate danger, but he certainly wasn’t out picking flowers.

The women of the wood. _Iele_. They fell upon him like wolves on a carcass. He still didn’t understand why they’d taken both of them, why they’d let Alucard sink his teeth in his flesh if he was so precious to them. Why they’d _encouraged_ it. 

His knuckles rapping on the wooden door resounded like a small earthquake. Sometimes, when deep in thought, he forgot to adjust his strength to match his surroundings. He tried again, though this time he worried he was too gentle. 

On the third knock, Sypha, wrapped in a blanket and openly yawning, opened the door. Alucard tried to not stare at her hair, which was tangled up in a rather adorable bird’s nest.

“Is it time to go already?” Her last syllable stretched into another yawn. “Or is Trevor out here bothering you? I don’t think”--She rubbed the sleep from her eyes--”he’s inside. I didn’t see him when I got up.”

“He’s not bothering me. That’s the problem. “Alucard hesitated, unsure of how to phrase his next statement. “He’s not here.”

“What do you mean?” Sypha asked, her sleep-drenched voice sharpening into alertness. 

“It’s a bit... complicated. Please, get dressed. I can explain as we walk. I think I know where to go.”

\--- 

“So…” Sypha counted on her fingers as she recounted Alucard’s story, “you were both kidnapped by nymphs, then they spat you back out, but they kept Trevor. And now we’re going to get him back.”

“Basically, yes.” 

He’d left out the parts that were less favorable to his character. Only time for one crisis at the moment. Hopefully, the marks he’d left on the man’s flesh wouldn’t be too noticeable, but if they were, he could always blame the _iele,_ given that they were the villains in this situation. 

They were headed in a rather indiscriminate direction, but Alucard sensed they were growing near. They’d been walking this way since their journey began. To the cave. _The_ cave. It had to be the same one. He’d been too spellbound, too distracted to realize it at first. It pained him to realize his thirst for a certain loudmouthed hunter had distracted him from his primary objective.

“I just don’t get it,” Sypha said, crossing her arms. “Why Trevor?” 

“Your guess is as good as mine.” 

“I guess this forest hasn’t forgotten his family name,” she said, trailing her hand along the weathered trunk of an old tree. 

Alucard huffed with the slightest grin. “His family legacy is far from extinguished. I hesitate to even speak his name too loudly, lest we piss off another forest creature.” 

Sypha laughed. “It’s so strange, hearing you say crass words. You know, I keep forgetting Trevor’s a blue blood. His vocabulary is so foul sometimes he makes gutters look clean.” 

She sighed. “I hope he’s alright. At least, I hope he hasn’t killed anything he shouldn’t have.”

Her smile couldn’t swallow the worry in her eyes. 

“I could get there much faster,” Alucard spoke. “My only worry is that you wouldn’t keep up. I don’t want to leave you behind.”

“Don’t worry about me! I have ways of finding people.”

This time, her smile was genuine.

“I will need to transform into my other form,” Alucard said simply.

Sypha’s mouth hung open. “You have another form? What is it?”

“Canine.”

“You can turn into a dog?” Sypha nearly squealed. “I want to see!”

“More wolf than dog,” Alucard said, trying to hide his offense. “I become significantly faster, and my senses are heightened. I will most likely outrun you. You would be alone, momentarily. If you get lost, though, I can track you down.” 

Sypha rolled her eyes. “What am I, a damsel in distress?” A flame shot out of her palm and pierced through a log laying in their path. “I think I can handle myself. I’ll follow your paw prints. But… Alucard?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t wait for me. When you get there. Just go. Get him back.” 

Alucard nodded. Then, in half a blink of an eye, he leaped over the damaged log and transformed mid-air into a brilliant albino wolf. He heard Sypha clapping and cheering as he dashed toward his chosen marker. 

Paws pounded the forest floor. In this form, his senses illuminated, he could track the hunter within a hundred miles. 

And so he ran. 

\---

The cave looked much plainer from the outside. It was just a break in the rocks, a sliver the size of two men placed side by side. Nothing that would attract the attention of a wanderer unless he were absolutely desperate for shelter, and God help him then.

Alucard, having transformed back into his semi-human form, checked his tracks behind him. A clear set of paw prints led to the mouth of the cave. Sypha would find them, surely. 

Getting into the cave required Alucard to crouch much lower than he was comfortable with, the craggy rocks above threatening to scalp him clean if he raised himself one centimeter higher. Just when he was nearly sure he couldn’t make it any further, the ceiling abruptly rose. The tiny crevice he found himself wedged into became an expansive cavern. 

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see the fluttering of bat wings and the scattering of spiders along the walls. And, as his ears adjusted, he could hear something beyond the normal echo of animals and debris. Something like a song, but without lyrics or rhythm or tempo or anything to define it, though it was far more than just noise. Beneath the sound, he felt, somewhere within his flesh and bone, the inexplicable aura of the Belmont.

Alucard came upon him much faster than he’d expected. Just around the corner, in fact. The telltale violet and indigo and teal dancing across the wet stones brought Alucard back to his last visit with Trevor, though this time, he was free from his bindings, with his back to Alucard, seemingly entranced by the watery reflections.

“Trevor?” His voice echoed through the cavern. “It’s... Alucard.” Christ, there wasn’t a way to go about this that wasn’t idiotic, was there?

“Alucard?” Trevor turned to greet the dhampir. “They told me you would come.”

His glazed eyes gave him the look of an already dead man, and his uncanny smile looked painted on. It was unnerving, but clearly reversible. He was simply under a spell. Nymph magic, while unnerving, didn’t frighten the dhampir. He’d seen much worse.

After assessing his mental state, Alucard couldn’t help but glance at his neck. The mark remained, purple around the edges, much rougher than if Alucard had been entirely in control of his senses at the moment. So that hadn’t been a dream. Though he’d known all along, it now felt confirmed. 

Now, about bringing him back to the surface.

“Where are they?” Alucard asked. 

Trevor’s false smile grew larger. “Everywhere.”

A sound like bells chiming, piercing and melodic. A flush of swan wings. Then, they appeared. A set of three: one of silver hair, one of crimson, and one of black. Their gossamer cloaks circled them like spider web. 

“You know not what you take,” Alucard spoke. “Give him back, and we will leave you in peace.”

They spoke, but their mouths did not move.

“No.”

“We adhere to our promise.”

“Our covenant, with the Belmonts. Made long before your birth.”

Trevor stayed seated like an obedient child, rocking gently back and forth.

“Enlighten me,” Alucard said.

The three nymphs seemed to grow taller. They were levitating. Typical nymph theatrics.

“We keep our precious land, our rock, our wood, without fear of ruin or revolution--”

“And in exchange, the Belmont line--”

“Stays preserved, for centuries to come.”

“So...” Alucard furrowed his brow. “They offered you peace, in exchange for… what?”

“Preservation,” one nymph (the silver one, he was sure) hissed through her closed mouth.

“I don’t see how keeping a Belmont locked up in a cave functions as preservation,” he said. “His body is intact, but his mind is clearly rotting.”

“We fulfill the covenant,” they answered in unison. “The world is dark and terrible. We will preserve.”

Two options lay before him: he could kill off the entire lot of them and suffer what consequences he may, or he could strike a deal. Given the immediacy of their situation and the overriding quest to defeat Dracula, he was forced to choose one option.  
“I will swear to you to act in your interest and preserve the Belmont line.”

“ _Liar._ You are killer. Feeder. Vampire.”

“Yes, and you didn’t seem to mind that a few hours ago.”

Their hair seemed to stand on end, like an angry cat, their watercolor features twisting into something akin to anger.

“I apologize. That was uncalled for…”

He glanced toward Trevor, who pressed himself against the wall and covered himself with his arms in a way utterly unlike himself. They wanted to keep him here, stagnate and safe as a painting in a gallery.

“I would like to make a covenant with you.”

“Yes?” Their glittery dressings floated and fluttered in a show of their excitement. 

So this was what they’d wanted. Predictable.

“Trevor is needed for a prophecy. A prophecy to save the human world. If we succeed,” he looked down at the pitiful looking hunter, trying to remember what he looked like with a weapon in his hands, “we will extend your territory in gratitude.”

“And if you should not succeed?” That had to have been the black-haired one. Alucard could tell their almost-identical voices apart now.

“You can have me.”

They tutted amongst themselves, nearly dissipating in a blur of mist before reemerging fully formed, as substantial as flesh-and-blood women. 

“We accept,” the black-haired nymph spoke, her mouth now following her words. 

“We must bind the covenant,” the red-headed nymph said. 

The silver nymph extended a jagged crystal blade, which Alucard took, understanding the implication. He drew the knife across his palm and offered his hand, sparkling with deep red blood. 

Each creature sliced their palm and offered it in time, the silver nymph last to grasp Alucard’s hand in hers. 

“It is bound,” she whispered, and Alucard could see that her eyes were pink as spring tulips lined with wheat-blonde lashes.

They disappeared as suddenly as they’d arrived.

“Where… where the hell am I?”  
Alucard turned, having nearly forgotten the damned man he’d come to retrieve. 

“You don’t remember?” He wound his bloody palm with a piece of cloth he’d carried just for the occasion. 

Trevor stood up shakily, hands on his knees as he shook himself awake. 

“Fuck, I mean… How long have I been asleep?” His eyes caught upon the jewel-toned colors reflecting upon the cave’s roof and walls. “Am I still asleep?”

“No,” Alucard answered, ripping off the excess cloth with his teeth before binding his hand. “And we need to talk--”

“Trevor!” 

Sypha came barreling straight for the groggy man. He nearly fell over from her grateful embrace. 

“Trevor, you’re okay!” She nuzzled into his chest. 

“Yes, I’m… okay?” Trevor said, still unsure.

The Speaker leaned back to take all of Trevor in, ready to note any abnormality. 

“My gods, what is this?” She traced her fingers along the two puncture holes along the right side of Trevor’s neck. “What did those monsters _do_ to you?” 

Trevor reached up to touch the wound, inciting a wince from both the dhampir and the hunter. 

“Uh, I don’t know? It doesn’t hurt… that much?” He made a strange face, unreadable to all but Alucard. “Maybe don’t touch it?”

“I’ll kill those bastards,” Sypha said determinedly. 

“Seeing as I made a blood covenant to get Trevor back,” Alucard said, bearing his bandaged wound, “I’d suggest you’d best hold off.”

Sypha looked absolutely horrified, if only for a moment, before regaining her composure.

“Let’s get out of this cave,” she said, dragging Trevor behind her. 

“Good with that,” Trevor answered, almost tripping as he regained his composure. “Alucard?”

“I would agree with you, but we have unfinished work here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's in the cave ??? 
> 
> Just want to say that I truly appreciate all of your comments! It's such a confidence boost for a freelance writer. I love you all. 
> 
> Also, I keep naming these chapters in order of Chelsea Wolfe's "Hiss Spun" album, which is what I listen to whenever I'm writing this fic. Please listen to it. It's very good.


	9. Twin Fawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cave things followed by tomfoolery.

_Belmont._

He remembered some of it. Fragments snatched from the wind, pictures coming into focus. It wasn’t much, but it was something to work with.

He still had no idea why it’d happened. Any of it, including the bit (bite) he’d covered for Alucard earlier--though, if it’d been at no risk to his reputation, God would he have loved to shame him for it. 

“If you two hadn’t barged in,” Trevor said as they followed Alucard further into the ominous darkness, “I’d be making the beast with two backs as we speak!”

At Alucard’s insistence, they were following a haphazard path into the cave’s ‘heart’, where they’d supposedly find their unknown treasure. They walked with their weapons at bay, comfortable with the knowledge that no other creature would dare inhabit the _iele _’s terrain. Only Sypha’s firelight, held in place by her outstretched palm, served to guide them in these dark corners.__

__“I apologize,” Alucard said, though his tone carried no trace of sympathy. “I would have taken my time, but Sypha was quite concerned about you disappearing without a trace.”_ _

__“Oh, please!” Sypha rolled her eyes. “ You’re the one who shapeshifted just to get here faster.”_ _

__“Shapeshifted?” Trevor asked, sounding sincerely intrigued._ _

__“I can change my form," He replied, adding hesitantly, "...just as my father can.”_ _

__Trevor raised his eyebrows. Leave it to Alucard to stay tight-lipped about anything of actual interest._ _

__“... And?”_ _

__“I take a canine form,” Alucard explained as casually as one would describe the weather. “It makes it easier to traverse densely forested areas.”_ _

__Trevor considered it for a moment, trying to picture what breed of dog Alucard could transform into, then catching himself before he burst out in laughter at the thought of the world’s most princely dog._ _

__“I wanna see,” he said slyly. “Do it.”_ _

__“I do not shapeshift on command.”_ _

__Sypha held up her hand toward Trevor’s ear in a show of secrecy and whispered, “He’s very fluffy!”_ _

__The speaker and the hunter chuckled to themselves, their antics soon quieted by Alucard’s stoic demeanor. He was really serious about this, whatever it was. Trevor hoped he was right. This was all they had, after all. Without it, he might as well be back with the nymphs._ _

__The cave seemed to extend into eternity. Not even bats or spiders inhabited where they walked. Just shadows and eerie emptiness. Without the generosity of Sypha’s handheld light, they would be in pitch black darkness; even with her light, Trevor’s vision was restricted to a foot or so in front of him. In the minute or so they’d stopped talking, Trevor became all t0o aware of how restricted his vision was. How vulnerable they were to anyone who dared attack at that moment. It was much easier to ignore when they were engaged in banter._ _

__Sypha was the first to break their momentary silence._ _

__“I don’t understand. The _iele_ didn’t take Trevor away to sleep with him--”_ _

__“You don’t know that!” Trevor interjected._ _

__“--so why did they take him?”_ _

__“It was a warning,” Alucard said. “I don’t think they intended to do anything to him. They were waiting for us to arrive.”_ _

__Although Trevor couldn’t quite see the dhampir, he could sense Alucard turning toward him to ask: “What do you know about your family’s ties to the fae?”_ _

__Trevor shrugged. “I was taught to kill monsters, not barter with fae. All I know about nymphs is that they like to fuck. They’re only a pain if you get in between one of them and a stiff cock.”_ _

__Sypha cringed at his crudeness, not that she’d expected better from him. “That’s lovely. But they certainly didn’t seem to be in the process of fucking you when we found you.”_ _

__“Like I said before, you two got in the way,” He said stubbornly._ _

__“Or,” he wagged his finger in the air as if he’d just had a brilliant thought, “They’d already had their way with me, then erased my memory just to fuck with me more.”_ _

__“Well, Alucard, you got to the cave before I did. Did he look like someone who’d just been fucked?”_ _

__“No. He does seem cleaner, though.”_ _

__Sypha smelled the air around Trevor._ _

__“He smells like roses!” She said, her firelight flourishing along with her astonishment._ _

__“Stop smelling me,” Trevor said, giving her a gentle shove._ _

__Sypha stuck her tongue out in return._ _

__“I believe the message they wanted to send with your capture,” Alucard said, pretending to ignore their playfulness while letting a small smile sneak through, “is that we are not allowed to let you die.”_ _

__“But why would a bunch of nymphs care if a Belmont lived or died?” Sypha wondered. “He just said his family had nothing to do with fae.”_ _

__“True,” Trevor nodded in agreement. “ _I_ don’t even care if I live or die.”_ _

__Sypha shot a look, a mix of anger and concern, toward Trevor, then Alucard, as if he had anything to do with Trevor’s apathy._ _

__“Somehow,” Alucard said, “a Belmont received the _iele_ ’s blessing for paying them a favor. Their compensation was the promise that they would never let the Belmont line extinguish.”_ _

__Sypha cocked her head. “But why…?”_ _

__“I have no idea. You Belmonts are a mystery.” He directed his last comment at Trevor, who was absentmindedly stroking the two entrance wounds on his neck._ _

__“Trevor, don’t touch it!” Sypha swatted his hand away. “I still don’t understand how those got there if the nymphs truly left you be.”_ _

__The hunter and the dhampir shared a glance that could only be described as knowing._ _

__Yes, Trevor remembered that bit. And he hadn’t detested it. The lingering marks ached like a bruise, but he didn’t seem to mind that either._ _

__Needless to say, they had some talking to do after they’d left this godforsaken cave. Maybe some things that didn’t involve much speaking._ _

__“Stop,” Alucard spoke. “This is it.”_ _

__They’d reached the end of their path. Sypha’s flame expanded, floating above her as a small bonfire to illuminate the rock wall. This was it?_ _

__One word carved upon the surface, jagged and sloppy, as if carved by a dying man._ _

__“ _Sub_ ,” Sypha read. _ _

__“Are you fucking kidding me?” Trevor searched the rock for any other message, any other clue besides the three letter word before them. “Fucking ‘sub’? We came all this way for that?”_ _

__Alucard mouthed the word silently, trying to unlock its secret._ _

__“I know where to go,” he said, as resolute as Trevor was incredulous. “Or rather, what to do.”_ _

__As abruptly as he’d entered, he stormed back in the direction they’d came, no problem seeing through the dark without Sypha’s guiding light._ _

__“You have any idea what it means?” Trevor asked Sypha, who peered closer at the three letters._ _

__“No clue,” she said._ _

__Trevor’s right hand came to rest on his neck, then smoothly shifted to the back of his head. “Guess we’re trusting the vampire on this one.”_ _

__What else could they do? There were no other clues, no other choices. They'd followed Alucard this far. Trevor couldn't help feeling as though they were leaving one dark hole and walking straight into another._ _

__\--_ _

__They caught up to Alucard outside of the cave. He’d been gracious enough to wait by the mouth of the cave, stooped upon a rock as he poured over his father’s recorded thoughts. Trevor was secretly pissed they hadn’t encountered him in his “canine form”._ _

__“Care to share your revelation?” Trevor asked, crossing his arms._ _

__Judging by the sun, it must’ve been barely noon. Damn. For once, he hoped for nightfall._ _

__“We need to go underground,” Alucard answered without glancing up from his sacred text._ _

__“So should we start digging a hole here, or…?”_ _

__Sypha’s whole complexion brightened as if she’d swallowed her own starlight. “I know where to go.”_ _

__“As do I,” Alucard said, closing his book. “But it will take time.”_ _

__“I’ll go back to the hut and get supplies,” Sypha said. “Alucard and Trevor, you stay here. I don’t think Trevor should go anywhere near the hut after today, and there’s no point in all of us going back.”_ _

__“Great,” Trevor said loudly, as if to remind the other two he was still _right there_. “I’ll just stay in the dark then. No need to tell me what the Hell is going on.” _ _

__“'Sub,' Trevor. The clue says "sub." Under. Do you know what under means?” Sypha chided._ _

__“Yes, thank you. Under _what_?”_ _

__“Wallachia,” Alucard answered._ _

__“Oh…” Trevor’s stare fixated on the dirt beneath them. “How?”_ _

__“You’ll see,” Sypha said, flashing a thin, though hopeful, smile before she hastened back to the hut._ _

__Trevor would have pressed for more, but the rendezvous in the cave had left him mentally ragged. He felt as if were still wandering the corridor between dreams and reality. Part of him wondered if he were still in the cave now, dreaming with his eyes open._ _

__“Fuck it,” he sighed._ _

__A spray of leaves and brush dusted Alucard’s shins as Trevor plopped down into a cross legged position, one hand propping up his chin, like a bored schoolboy. Then, remembering their current situation (as in, the bloody blackmail stamped on his throat), he spun around to eye the other man impishly, one eyebrow raised in suspicion. The dhampir tried his best to appear utterly uninterested, but Trevor could now see past his apathetic display._ _

__“You know, I don’t remember much,” he said, propping his arms behind him so he could lean back. “Maybe I was hallucinating, but I could have sworn you were there for a moment. Then you weren’t.”_ _

__“I was there,” Alucard said. “For a moment. But I do not remember the journey there or back.”_ _

__“I didn’t leave you there intentionally,” he added, with what Trevor detected to be a sliver of genuine concern._ _

__“I know you didn’t,” Trevor said to his lap._ _

__“If I’d known what was happening, I…” Alucard trailed off. For once, he looked almost flustered._ _

__Dammit, Trevor could tell he was turning red. This was becoming entirely too sentimental for his liking. He knew exactly how to steer the conversation back on track._ _

__“You wouldn’t have jumped my bones like a bloodsucking streetwalker in a cave filled with voyeuristic nymphs?”_ _

__Alucard crossed his arms, smirking as if to say ‘I know what you’re doing, asshole.’ The dance of petty insults and quarreling, crescendoing into two heated bodies drawing ever-closer, foreplay concealed as loathing._ _

__“Perhaps you wouldn’t have given in so easily if we both weren’t in such _unusual_ circumstances,” he replied, answering the call to dance and drawing one step closer. “Or maybe you’d just been waiting for an excuse to expose your neck as easily as said streetwalkers spread their legs.”_ _

__Trevor drew himself up to stand neck and neck with the man so they could continue their waltz. _One two three one two three…__ _

__“Or maybe I’m so damned irresistible, you followed me into a faerie hellhole just to get another taste.”_ _

__“I’m impressed. That might actually be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”_ _

__One step closer. Trevor could feel the frigid air enveloping Alucard’s frame, and somehow he wanted more of it. A nip on the wrist had left him wanting, but their moment in the cave nearly turned him feral. He hadn’t expected this shared hunger, this need for feeding that arose not from hunger, but from something that frightened him much more._ _

__“So make me stop talking,” he said, grateful when the other man met his demand without wasting time on words._ _

__Alucard’s long fingers wrenched in Trevor’s hair as they disposed of the space between them. This dance was much deadlier. More scraping of teeth and tongue. Trevor’s movements were chaotic and demanding--bitten lips, clothes nearly shredded until Alucard’s hands left his scalp to pull the other man’s arms down against his sides. Alucard was a cold wind whipping through a house fire, his motions far more calculated, well-practiced to expose his partner’s vulnerabilities._ _

__Once Trevor began to relax into their choreography, Alucard released his arms, hands traveling back to his pullable hair. Trevor wanted something to do with his hands too, so he settled for pawing at the man’s coat, drawing him even closer until the outlines of their bodies seemed to blur. Thoughts now entirely overcome, he let out a low moan, almost a growl, paying no mind to how he nearly rutted against Alucard. His head felt light as air. Static hummed in his fingertips._ _

__How long had it been since he’d taken a breath?_ _

__It took some effort, but he managed to twist his head to the side for a gasp of cold mountain air._ _

__“Jesus,” he said with shaking syllables. “You do know humans have to breathe, right?”_ _

__“Too much for you?”_ _

__He could hear the smirk in his voice. It drove him mad in many confusing and contradictory ways._ _

__“Hardly,” he answered._ _

__“Good.”_ _

__Alucard, not much for words at the moment, picked up where they left off. Trevor settled back into their serpentine dance, pleased with himself for having caught on to the rhythm and now searching for ways he could pry contented sounds from the stolid half-man. This was still a duel of another form, and Trevor would win it somehow._ _

__Alucard, as swiftly as snatching a kitten by its scruff, grabbed him by a tuft of hair. Trevor felt his head yanked, his neck exposed where the twin puncture wounds still blossomed violet. A strangely cold tongue caressed the bruised flesh, and Trevor winced at the sensation. He was still tender there, as with any bruise, but the touch wasn’t entirely unpleasant. Alucard replaced his tongue with his fingers and pressed, gently at first, then harder. Trevor groaned._ _

__“I’m sorry,” Alucard said, voice low and thick. Trevor noted the light scarlet ringing his golden irises. “Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t have left a trace. There would be no pain now.”_ _

__“‘S not”--Trevor cleared his throat--“not bad. Can’t feel it usually. Even now, it doesn’t feel… bad.”_ _

__He felt strange now, as the subject Alucard’s inspection. Being kissed was much easier than being looked at._ _

__“It’s not...” Trevor hesitated to finish the question that had weighed on his mind for the past hour. “It’s not going to stay there, is it?”_ _

__Alucard meditated on the question just long enough to make Trevor truly uncomfortable._ _

__“It will heal, eventually. It’s a messy bite, but not a powerful one.” He brushed his fingers over the wound again, causing Trevor to shiver._ _

__“Can you… can we…”_ _

__Trevor wasn’t sure what he was asking for anymore. The pressure on his neck made him more intoxicated than any wine. He wouldn’t mind, just then, if Alucard bit him hard enough for those marks to stay forever._ _

__“What?” Alucard asked._ _

__His lips returned to the man’s vulnerable neck, where he mouthed softly--then not-so-softly, inciting Trevor to curse and hiss as a cavalcade of sensations rushed through him._ _

__“Fucking bite me again, asshole. I don’t even--ugh--remember last time.” He inhaled sharply when he felt teeth press gently against his throat._ _

__Alucard let go with one last tender kiss. He looked Trevor directly in the eyes, his hand still deeply entrenched in his hair._ _

__“No,” he said._ _

__“The fuck do you mean no?” His neck throbbed from the lost contact._ _

__This was not the time for Alucard to renounce blood like some kind of bloodsucking saint. Trevor felt like he’d completely unravel if he stopped touching him. The feeling ravaged him from the inside out. It was worse than hunger, this desire to be eaten. It was bottomless. He nearly cried out when Alucard let go of his hair again to stand eye-to-eye._ _

__“I understand your frustration,” Alucard said, “but, as much as you frustrate me at times, I’d like to keep you alive.”_ _

__“We had an agreement,” Trevor huffed._ _

__“Hmm…” Alucard narrowed his eyes. “I see.”_ _

__“See what, jackass? I’m not in the mood for riddles.”_ _

__“Nothing, it’s nothing unusual.” He rested a hand on his chin. “I just never expected to see it from you.”_ _

__“See what?”_ _

__What would it take to get him to stop talking and touch him again?_ _

__“We call it bloodlust,” Alucard said, now taking Trevor’s chin in hand. “Though you may know that word by a different meaning.”_ _

__“I couldn’t possibly give less of a fuck about your bloodsucker words, Alucard,” he said through gritted teeth._ _

__“How does it feel? Like a burn? Or a drowning? I’ve heard both.”_ _

__“It feels like I’m going to bury a stake in your heart if you don’t shut up and bite me.” God, did he just say that? As if the world wasn’t upside down enough._ _

__“I see.” Alucard nodded doctorally. “There are ways to satiate you that don’t involve my fangs.”_ _

__“Christ on a cross, I’d love to find out before I die of whatever curse you’ve given me,” he spat._ _

__He’d never felt so many conflicting emotions at once, but the one, overriding thought was the need, now, to end the gnawing in his bones by whatever means._ _

__Alucard assessed the sun’s position. “We have an hour, at least, until Sypha returns. Let’s see what we can accomplish in that time.”_ _

__“Great.” Trevor was absolutely perspiring through his tunic. “This is all your fucking fault.”_ _

__“Let’s just blame the nymphs,” Alucard said, shirking his coat and making toward Trevor with a predatory look. “Or thank them.”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _sub_ = under in Romanian 
> 
> Next chapter might be nsfw? Honestly it's been a while since I've written smut so... lord we'll see. 
> 
> I read and appreciate all your comments <3


	10. Offering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mild sexy--but no bloodletting!
> 
> Somewhat dubcon due to aggressiveness (not intended at all to be noncon).

_Tepes._

Trevor was a mess, over-eager and panting like a dog eyeing a cut of meat held just out of reach. When Alucard suggested they’d “blame the nymphs”, he hadn’t been entirely facetious. This sort of state was not easily wrought by his hand alone. Nothing so strong as poison, but an aphrodisiac, perhaps, had passed his lips not long ago.

With that in mind, he tread lightly into the semi-charted territory of Belmont vulnerability. He’d been here before, yes, but not like this. This was… feral. 

It wasn’t easy, though, contemplating his morals with his tongue down the other man’s throat. He had Trevor pinned against a sturdy tree trunk, strong (for a human, at least) arms welded to the bark by Alucard’s distinctly stronger hands. Letting Trevor’s hands roam was not to his liking, as Trevor was bent toward grabbing and shoving until he’d had his way, whatever way that was.

Trevor gasped as he tore himself away from the other man’s mouth, though his body remained crucified. 

“This is fucking… not working. It’s just making it worse,” He glared. “What the Hell did you do to me?” 

“What did I do?” Alucard smiled slyly, searching for the hint of glamour or spellwork in his glazed eyes. “I have done nothing out of the ordinary. You invited this.”

The hunter looked mead-drunk, though his limbs didn’t quiver with intoxication. A dreamy memory from the cave flashed through Alucard’s thoughts. _The honey._

Honey was the aphrodisiac of choice for commonfolk. Whatever the nymphs housed was sure to pack more of a punch than your average beekeeper’s wares. It was viable, yes, but not the potent potion as he’d suspected. Within the hour, the afflicted one’s urgency would fade. Perhaps. 

Trevor’s look of lust-soaked fury incited some doubt. He’d never seen someone convey so many contradictory emotions at once--disgust and desire, hate and… 

Alucard waited a moment too long, giving just enough time for Trevor to twist his way nearly out of the dhampir’s grasp and, with shocking grace, resituate himself in Alucard’s previous position. He pressed with all of his weight until he’d almost entirely pinned the other man, though his dominance took considerably more effort.

“Don’t be so cocky,” he said, still panting for breath. “I invited you in. I can invite you out.”

“So do it.” 

Trevor bit his lower lip, as if weighing his options. “Don’t think I want to yet.”

They resumed their previous pleasures, though with Trevor now in control, as much as Alucard allowed him to be. He must have taken great pleasure in binding his arms, given how liberally he applied his lips to Alucard’s throat in an adorable mimicry of what he wished Alucard would do to him now. The purple blossoms on his neck shown as he bit down, drawing a genuine gasp from the dhampir.

When Alucard decided he’d had enough of Trevor’s little show, he reasserted himself in one motion, twisting his leg around the other man’s calves and flipping him back against the much abused tree. 

The man beneath him gasped and cursed; he gathered his hair in his hand like so many flowers and pulled to uproot. He wished again to bite him there, where the purple marks blossomed, between shoulder and chin. He compromised a gentle press against the wound (inciting a fiery hiss, Trevor’s freed hands digging into his shoulder) and trails of tiny almost-bites up to his blistered mouth. 

It all should have felt wrong, but somehow seemed perfectly fine, as natural as the moss growing on the weathered tree bark. As if raw honey and the suggestion of nymphs could excuse all their wickedness. If he thought the poison were something more potent perhaps he could’ve been excused, but he knew. He knew all along.

So when he kissed him again, harder than before, it wasn’t unexpected. But there was more now. He felt the pressure against his leg while they spun together like so much sickness.

Alucard reached his hand just beneath the collar of the other man’s shirt and dragged slowly below, releasing his mouth to gauge his reaction. He bucked into the touch. 

“Fuck you,” Trevor gasped. “You’re a fucking tease.”

“You think I can’t deliver, Belmont?” Alucard’s other hand lowered toward his breeches. 

“All you’re good for--” Trevor gasped as his hand went lower, “is pissing me off.”

“We could test that,” Alucard said, resting his hand against a distinct bulge. 

“So what exactly,” Trevor asked, “do you get out of touching my dick?” 

Alucard placed his open palm on Trevor’s arousal and almost winked. “The gift of your silence.” 

Like magic, the hunter was reduced to a bundle of wants and needs. Alucard captured his lips again, forcing him to concentrate as he palmed him through his bothersome clothes. He took pleasure in Trevor’s small sounds of encouragement, in the heat radiating from his body.

In the midst of this madness, some small part of him remembered: Trevor was the child of annihilation, the culmination of centuries of enmity. Now, thrusting beneath him with prominent attraction, Alucard could not ignore the implications of their intimacy. 

Or--he thought as Trevor entangled his hands in his hair and let a quiet but insistent _‘more’_ pass his lips--he could ignore it for now, and come back to it later. 

Alucard’s adept hand had slipped beneath the man’s smallclothes and now wrapped shamelessly around his arousal, eliciting an immediate violent reaction. Trevor thrashed, as if possessed, with the trace of his fingers. He bucked up, a shooting star of fire and fury. 

“Is this what you want?” he whispered into the shell of his ear. 

“Fuck you,” Trevor managed to throw back, though he was almost already liquid in Alucard’s palms. “You’re the devil, you--”

Alucard took such delight in cutting him off. He continued his ministrations, pulling harder than before on Trevor’s length as he nipped at his swollen lower lip. 

So they danced, curse and urge, love and hate, intertwined.

They kissed with a force more akin to combat than affection. Trevor, fumbling with his hands, settles for placing them on Alucard’s bony hips, rooting hard, as if desiring to separate bone from flesh. Alucard tugged the unwanted fabric past Trevor’s own hips, freeing his member under the faint forest sunlight. At that, Trevor began to rut and writhe with gritted teeth, seemingly both furious and elated by Alucard’s boldness. 

In this position, with the hunter’s brown hair plastered to his sweltering head, his eyes pressed closed, lashes spread across his cheeks, Alucard was as much in control as he’d been with his teeth in his neck. It was like feeding, yes--only now, he wasn’t the one being fed.

Noting the chance to torture the hunter once more, Alucard used his free hand to grip Trevor’s jaw and force him back. 

“Should I stop?” he asked, resting his forehead against Trevor’s. The hand on his member twitched.

“I’ll fucking kill you if you stop, you bastard,” was his answer. “Is that good enough?” 

“Hmm…” He feigned rumination as his hand carried on. 

Trevor’s breath hitched. Growing impatient, he tore Alucard’s iron grip from his jaw and forced their mouths back together. 

From there, it seemed to flow effortlessly. Trevor’s breathless sounds of subconscious pleasure. Alucard’s continued strokes with his hand, in tangent with the movements of his tongue. 

“Yes… yes...” Trevor babbled as he entangled himself in Alucard’s limbs, as if he could get any closer without cutting him open first.

Alucard decided to reward him, just this once. 

When Trevor arched his back until his forehead touched the tree trunk, exposing the bruises and veins on his neck until Alucard had to bite his own lip to keep himself from ravaging that expanse again, Alucard knew he had him, but it wasn't enough. He wanted more. To see him this way with his teeth in him, correctly this time, without aid or trickery; or with his cock in him, pulling screams of pleasure and pain--or both. Alucard knew that he won’t be satisfied without it. God damn him. 

He compromised for enveloping his bite marks and sucking, hard, as if attempting to draw blood from a closed wound. He felt Trevor’s iron grip press upon his lower back, threatening to rip him apart despite his contented moans. If he could bite, just then. If he could taste. Then he could die, in ecstasy, and damn the rest to Hell.

He couldn't help muttering one word against his throat, again and again, like a spell or a deathwish. “Mine… mine… mine…”

Trevor twitches violently in his grasp. He swears he can hear Trevor utter one final “fuck you” as he spills upon his hand. He heaves, fully spent, as Alucard undoes himself from his puckered flesh. 

When he finds his voice again, Trevor, leaning back against the tree and perspiring like a sinner in church, is first to speak.

“Well… we’re fucked, then?”

Alucard, still seething with carnal desire, fought for the word to respond. 

“I’d say so.”

“Shit.” He ran a hand through his untidy mop. “What do we tell Sypha?” 

“We'll figure that out later,” Alucard said, framing the hunter’s face with his hands against the wilting tree bark. 

Sure, they were fucked, Alucard thought, diving down again to capture his lips, catching Trevor quite off guard but not unwilling to ensnare himself again. But then again, wasn’t everything fucked at the moment?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't written smut in one million years, so I started with something small. 
> 
> FYI I'm trying to make this fic fit the album I'm basing the chapters off of, which means there's 4 chapters left, hopefully!


	11. Static Hum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More things... precursor to kissing because why not?

_Belmont._

Trevor was as wiped as if he’d just spent the past half hour running for his life. His heart stuttered in his chest, his hands shook. Without Alucard’s steady hands pressed against his back, he would surely have hit the ground by now. 

Alucard, oddly, seemed utterly oblivious to Trevor’s senselessness--or perhaps he’d chosen to ignore it, opting instead for motions with his tongue and mouth that felt closer to bites than kisses. He was as wound up as Trevor was rung out. In fact, there was a hint of strained desire in his forceful fondling, like that of a dog begging for seconds. Trevor couldn’t help chuckling a bit at that image, remembering Sypha’s testimony of his fluffy canine form.

His smug laughter must have ruined the mood. Alucard parted quickly with a look of startled realization.

“What?” Trevor slurred, his tired tongue finding difficulty forming words. “Jus’ remember you left a fire burning? Thought vampires never forget… or’s that something else?” 

The pale man re-donned his noble demeanor like a cloak, dusting off his tunic as he released his hands from Trevor’s wrinkled clothes. Taking the hint, Trevor finicked with his own attire, tucking back in what had been carelessly ripped out. Poke and preen as they might, though, they couldn’t erase the sense that something had most assuredly happened between the two of them. It hung in the air like a vapor, reeking of roses and blood.

“Sypha is near,” Alucard said, pulling his coat back on. “We should at least try to look acceptable.”

“Sypha’s smart.” Trevor looked down as he carefully re-buttoned… everything. “She’ll figure it out eventually. Don’t think she bought the notion that nymphs had anything to do with this.” He cocked his head to the side to reveal the two perfect circles, now ringed with a reddish hickey.

Alucard inhaled sharply, in aghast of his own creation. In his carelessness, he’d turned a damning mark into a death knell for them both. 

“We’re fucked either way, fang boy,” Trevor said, pulling up his collar in an attempt to make his neck wounds slightly less obvious. “She was bound to figure out at some point, though. She’s not dumb.” 

“Indeed. I’d say she’s smarter than both of us.”

“Would you?” Trevor stooped into a squatting position, too tired to remain standing without Alucard’s hands there to keep him up. “That’s right humble of you. Not that I disagree.”

“I truly believe she’ll find the way into the castle,” Alucard said, peering into the distance expectantly. 

“About that. What the hell are we supposed to extrapolate from the word “sub”?”

“Extrapolate. That’s a big word for you, Belmont.”

“Shut up and answer my question.” 

“It means there’s no point scouring the Earth for my father’s castle. It’s not on this realm. It’s underneath.” 

Trevor tour up a clump of dirt from the ground and observed it for a moment before tossing it aside. “So what? We’re going back to Wallachia with shovels and digging a tunnel?” 

“I know you’re not that stupid, Belmont,” Alucard said, looking slightly disgusted by Trevor’s exploits in the dirt. 

“Yeah, well I guess I’m not smart enough to figure out what underneath the world is supposed to mean.” Trevor’s next clump of dirt landed near Alucard’s boots.

Alucard shifted to his left. “You know of Hell, I suppose?”

“Heard of it.”

“Let’s just say Dracula owns land betwixt Earth and Hell. And that’s where we’ll find him now.”

Trevor collapsed on his haunches with a puff of air. “Great. So I’ll still get my shovel?” 

“No, you won’t.” He massaged the bridge of his nose, already mentally exhausted by Trevor’s stubbornness. “I trust that Sypha can find a more reasonable way.” 

“How?” 

“You could ask her,” Alucard suggested, gesturing to a petite human shape bobbing between the tree trunks. 

From the fog of moss and branches, Sypha appeared, a cloth satchel strapped across her back, filled to the brim with various jars and bits of dried plants. Her yellow bob was a tangled nest of curls and fallen leaves, and her skin glowed with vigour.

“Sorry for the wait,” she said, wiping her brow. “Just couldn’t stand to leave all those goods alone after what those damn--I mean,” she called out a bit louder, “those wonderful, gracious nymphs--put us through. Shall we go now?” 

Trevor rose up with a groan and a stretch. “Sure. Just wondering--where exactly are we going?” 

Sypha reached into her satchel and retrieved a jar of something pickled and flesh-colored. “Down the mountain, of course.” She tossed the jar toward Trevor, who fumbled to catch it almost-too-late. 

He opened the jar and took a whiff. Pickled pigs feet. Sure, he could eat. 

“So, what have you two been up to while I was away?” She smirked, retrieving a golden apple from her pack and taking a hearty bite. 

Both men tried to answer at once. “Well--” “Uh, I mean…” 

“Nothing,” Alucard finished.

“What he said,” Trevor added, coughing into his hand. 

“Oh… okay?” Sypha said, masking her smile with a large bite. 

_See?_ Trevor wanted to say. _Can’t fool her for a second._ And yet they were still pretending that they could. 

Alucard surveyed the sky. “We’d best get going. We’ll want to get as far off the mountain as we can before sunset.” 

“Why’s that?” Trevor tossed the jar back to Sypha with a thankful nod. 

“I’d prefer to avoid the Belmont’s friends and foe for the rest of our voyage,” Alucard said, already walking ahead. “We have enough enemies already.”

\--

“That’s my understanding of it, at least,” Sypha said, tossing another apple core behind her. 

They were several hours into their journey down the mountain, which meant Trevor had listened to several hours of theories and conjectures about how exactly they’d get into Dracula’s damned castle. As far as he could see, their trip to the cave and the message within had only made them all the more confused. 

“I agree,” Alucard answered, although Trevor had no fucking clue what he’d agreed with. 

“So…” Trevor furrowed his brow. “We need to get… beneath Wallachia?” 

“Yes,” Alucard and Sypha answered in unison.

“And to do that, we need a certain spell?” 

“An uncovering spell, yes,” Sypha said, growing in excitement as Trevor grew in understanding.

“But we don’t know exactly what spell.” 

“No…” Sypha’s face fell. “But if we go back to Wallachia, we’ll be closer. I’m sure with time…”

“We don’t have time,” Trevor said, noting the dimming sunlight. “The longer we wait, the more time Dracula has to burn the world down.”

Alucard cleared his throat. “I’m afraid I have to agree with him.”

“What a terrible thing it must be, agreeing with me.”

“You have no idea,” Alucard answered, catching himself before he smiled too noticeably. 

“Well…” Sypha studied her hands, as if willing them to conjure the answer as easily as they conjured the elements. “What do you suppose we do, then?” 

Trevor’s eyes roamed the familiar scenery of the forest. He kicked aside a tangle of brush and thorn, noting another circle of white-topped mushrooms along their path and resisting the urge to kick them too (God knows what otherworldly torment that would incite). 

“Let’s go to my house.” 

“Your house?” Sypha asked, ducking beneath a particularly low branch. “I didn’t know you had a house.”

Trevor had stopped at an overview. The descending sun outstretched fingers of orange and blue across the diminutive landscape. Far below, in valleys outlined by water, life persisted. Villages illuminated dusk with man-made fire, plots of wheat and fields of cattle cutting through the rock and wood of untamed forest. Human lives, unburdened by duty, threatened by forces they could never contend with. Unknowing, fragile. One would expect to feel like a god looking down upon his or her servants from far above; instead, all three felt much, much smaller.

“I did,” Trevor said. “Once.” 

\--

Another night. They’d decided to call it quits when Sypha and Trevor could no longer see beyond Sypha’s handheld illumination. In the meantime, though, they’d come to a variety of conclusions. 

First, they would head back toward civilization in search of a horse and carriage. Second, they’d head toward the what was once the Belmont's estate. Third, they’d hope to find something beneath the pile of rubble left behind. A library, Trevor had promised. The only room not destroyed by fire. Within that room, perhaps, an answer to the taunting riddle lay. A spell, they hoped. 

Something easy, for the love of God. With every meter they walked, Trevor swore his legs would fall off and dig themselves a grave to finally lie down in. 

They collapsed for the night in a relatively clear patch of grass along the slowly widening trail. All around them, the dry, gaunt trees contorted themselves toward whatever dim scraps of sunlight they could swallow. Low-hanging fog filled in the spaces between. How long had it been since it’d last rained? How long had it been… period? 

Ever-reliable Sypha, her angelic features knit in concentration, worked up a small fire, then retrieved a number of edible items from her satchel.

“I swear, Trevor, you would starve if I wasn’t here,” She said, chiding the hunter as he watched a hunk of well-brined meat sizzle over the flames. “No offense, Alucard.”

“None taken,” Alucard, yet again entranced with his father’s book, answered. “I’d let him starve.”

“I’ve somehow managed to make it this far on my own,” Trevor pointed out. 

“Barely,” Sypha said, offering a stick of semi-charred meat in Trevor’s direction, which Trevor took hungrily.  


“I’m breathing, ain’t I?” He asked, picking the gristle from his teeth.

Sypha’s attention now belonged to a jar of pickled beets. 

“Speaking of…” Trevor tossed his ravaged stick into the brush and turned toward his studious companion. “Do you breathe?” 

“Thought you would’ve figured that out by now,” Alucard answered, after an extended pause. 

Was he being cheeky, or was this just another strike at Trevor’s intelligence? The only response he could muster was a snort and a head shake: the nonverbal iteration of 'What the fuck?' 

Feigned ignorance was bliss, Trevor thought as he dug through Sypha’s scavenged treasures in search of a cask of ale. Surely she wouldn’t be so cruel as to leave alcohol to rot in the haunted hut… 

“Looking for this?” Sypha produced a darkly colored bottle from her distended sleeves. She’d conquered the jar of beets, as evidenced by her violet-stained fingertips. 

“Perhaps.” Trevor moved to swipe, but she withdrew much faster. 

“Be wise,” She warned before tossing the cask in his general direction.

“Am I ever?” “Is he ever?” Both men answered in near unison. 

A glare sharper than his best blade was what Trevor gave the other man as he took his first swig from the bottle. The rich, black liquid roasted his throat on the way to his stomach. Dirty cellar spirits, lost somewhere between liquor and wine.

The Speaker rested a finger against the side of her mouth and tilted her head, looking inquisitive and wistful as a child gazing into a toy shop window. Evil glowed in her irises, Trevor could’ve sworn. 

“You know what?” She yawned and stretched her limbs. “I think I’ll head to sleep. If you don’t mind looking after _him_.”

She gestured in Trevor's direction, clearly indicating that he fell under the 'to be looked after' category. Alucard nodded, still seemingly entranced with his incomprehensible journal. Sypha returned the poisonous look Trevor shot across the fire, though she flavored her glare with a taste of knowing smugness. 

“Hmm… you know, I wonder how far you all would make it without me?” He asked the dimming flame, taking another swig of pitch black liquid. "Maybe I'll fuck off over those cliffs one night and let you both take on the next abomination reject from Hell alone."

Sypha morphed herself into a tight crescent moon, her back against the fire. She fell to sleep faster than a cat on a well-lit windowsill. So goes the life of a Speaker--the ability to sleep in any circumstance was a well-earned trait.

“We haven’t underestimated you, Belmont.” A voice like stone striking steel tore through the darkness.

“Not worried about that.” 

Time for another sip. Perhaps a gulp.

“You were right.” He closed his damned book. “She can’t be fooled.” 

Sypha’s body rose and fell softly beneath her blue silks. She slept like an angel. Not that Trevor had ever seen an angel. He’d seen far more demons, but he supposed there wasn’t too much of a difference. There was a sort of glow though. Something you couldn’t define, seeping from her skin, shining all around her like a golden halo. 

He scoffed. “She can probably hear you now.” 

“Perhaps.” 

He drew closer, and Trevor suddenly remembered he was truly _there_. Not just a facade, but something flesh and blood, white skin flashing menacingly by the supernatural firelight. Someone whose hands now clamped down upon his own, abducting the bottle from his grasp and replacing it with his too-cold flesh. It was easy, then, to excuse how easily he caved beneath him, allowing his lips to be captured, his arms arrested by long-nailed claws that ripped thin scars.

But he wouldn’t go without a fight, he swore, as he cast the full weight of his body against the other. He scrambled atop that way, feeling every bit the hunter upon his prey, even as Alucard affronted him with motions far beyond his understanding. Trevor’s hand, with a bit more confidence, grazed upon certain places; the growls of contentment he received were merely flint to the fire.

They were all burning now.

"I breathe..." Alucard gasped, "when I want to."

"Really?" 

Trevor burrowed into his neck in a tame facsimile of their time in the cave. He could feel, almost hear, the blood rushing through his veins, and wished for a moment that he could see it, study its contents. 

"I don't want to... right now." 

His back bowed, and Trevor smiled, feeling for once that he'd won something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another chapter uploaded at midnight without a single readthrough so sorry if there are any glaring errors. Also sorry about all the gratuitous adjectives, I kinda went overboard on this one. 
> 
> Decided to keep it simple and stick with the season 2 story to make this easier to wrap up for now!


End file.
